
Book. . o f") 

Copyright IJ^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSrR 



Confirming the Faith 



The Bible. Is It Popular? 

The Bible. The Relation of the Old and New Testa- 
ments. 

The Bible. Is It Divinely Inspired? 

The Bible and Science. 

The Bible. It's Historical Romance and Genealogy, or 
where did We Get It? 



REV. jyTT SHAR 



MAN, 

Reedsburg, Wisconsin. 



.Ss 



GOPYRIGHTEU 

1910 

REV. J. T. SHARMAN 



» « 

• < 4 



(gC!.A2619 9 9 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

EXPLANATORY. 

CHAPTER 1. 

THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 
1. ITS PLACE IN THE WORLD OF LITER- 
ATURE: Shakespeare — Tennyson — Daniel Web- 
ster — Charles Dudley Warner — Senator Bever- 
idge, Etc. 2. THE TESTIMONY OF GREAT 
MEN: The personal testimonies of Ex-President 
Roosevelt — The Converison of Lincoln — Grover 
Cleveland — Patrick Henry— Mr. Bidwell — Queen 
Victoria — W. E. Gladstone- — Sir Oliver Lodge — 
Coleridge, Etc. 3. THE BIBLE IN CIRCULA- 
TION: (a) From the Bookseller's Point of View, 
(b) From the Student Standpoint — The Sunday 
Schools of the W^orld — The New Adult Bible Class 
Movement — World's Alliance of Y. M. C. A.'s — 
World's Student Christian Federation — Interna- 
tional Bible Reading Association. (c) The 
Standpoint of Publication and Distribution — The 
British and Foreign Bible Society — The National 
Bible Society — The American Bible Society — Ox- 
ford University Press. 4. THE PROGRESS OF 
MISSIONS: One Hundred Years in China — Ffty 
Years in Syria — Eight Y''ears in the Philippines 
— The Bible in the South Sea Islands, Etc. 5. 
WHY^ POPULAR?— MEETS THE SUPREME 
NEED OF THE HUMAN HEART: The Conver- 
sion, of the Brahmin — The Death of Socrates — 
The Death of Tom Paine. Pages 9-75. 

CHAPTER II. 
THE BIBLE. THE RELATION OF THE OLD AND 

NEW TESTAMENTS. 
Objections to the Old Testament — Identity of 
Theme — Christ and the Old Testament — The 
Gospel in the Old Testament. Pages 76-100. 

CHAPTER III. 
THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 
1. Objections to the Bible. 2. The Meaning of 
Divine Inspiration. 3. Evidences of Divine In- 



spiration. (a) INTERNAL EVIDENCE. The 
Testimony of Christ. The Testimony of Miracles. 
The Testimony of the Morality of the Bible. 
The Testimony of Prophecy (b) EXTERNAL 
EVIDENCE. The effect of the Religion of the 
Bible in the Lives of Nations and Individuals. 
The Testimony of Science. The Testimony of Ar- 
chaeology. The Testimony of Fire. Pages 101-130. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

1. Conjecture in Science and Religion. 2. Ob- 
jections and Answers. The Fact of Creation. 
(Bryan's Watermelon). The Mature Creation. 
The Voice of Archaeology. 3. Harmony Be- 
tween Science and Religion. 4. Harmony Be- 
tween Science a Strengthening Force of Chris- 
tianity. Pages 131-164. 
CHAPTER V. 

THE BIBLE. ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND 
GENEALOGY OR WHERE DID WE GET IT? 

1. THE STEPS IN BIBLICAL HISTORY: — (a) 
Printed Bibles, (b). The Three Oldest' Manu- 
scripts, The Vatican. The Sinaiticus. The Alex- 
andrian, (c) Ancient Versions and the Works 
of the Fathers. 1. The Syriac and Old Latin 
Version. 2. Ancient Fathers: — Tertullian — 
Justin Martyr — -Irenaus. 3. Apostolic Fathers: 
— Clement of Rome — Polycarp. 4. The Bible of 
Christ and the Apostles. 5. The Septuagint. 6. 
The Formation of the Old Testament Cannon. 2. 
THE GENEALOGY OF OUR BIBLE: — 1. The 
Septuagint. 2. The Old Latin Version. 3. The 
Vulgate. 4. Tyndale's Version, 5. Miles Cov- 
dale's Version. 6. Matthew's Bible. 7. The 
Great Bible. 8. The Genevan. 9. The Bishop's 
Bible. 10. Our Authorized Version. 11. Our 
Revised Version. 3. OTHER ROMANTIC 

TRANSLATIONS:— 1. The Samaritan Penta- 
teuch. 2. The First Anglo-Saxon Bible. 3. 
Wycliffe's Version. 4. The Poor Man's Bible. 5. 
The Douay. or Roman Catholic Bible. 6. Elliot's 
Indian Bible. 7. Judson's Burmese Bible. 

Pages 165-257. 



EXPLANATORY. 

The value of anv work is best seen 
when it accomplishes the end for which 
the task was wrought. No book can be 
of great value unless when writing, the 
author had some particular end in view. 

Let it be at once understood, that this 
volume, is not intended as a text book 
for the Theological Seminary, nor for 
the student of the ministry. There are 
plenty of books for such, and more ex- 
haustive than this. It is prepared for 
the layman; those who have not the 
privileges, afforded the student of the 
ministry, who sit in the pew and who, 
listening to the words as they fall from 
the lips of the preacher, wonder if, after 
all, these things are really so. 

The aim of this work is to intelligent- 
ly confirm the hearts of men, in the 
great and important truths of God, as 
declared in the Bible. The Apostle Paul 
urges that the ministry of God shall 
confirm the hearts of the believers in the 
faith of Jesus Christ, and yet this can 

5 



only be done as men and women shall 
have an unwavering confidence in the 
Bible as the Word of God. 

I have yet to find any man, however 
high in ecclesiastical office, whom I can 
trust, to devise a scheme that shall save 
my poor soul, and because of this, in 
seeking an authority in Religion, my 
only hope is in the Bible as God's re- 
vealed plan of-Human Redemption. And 
so in leading others into Truth and Life, 
which I believe to be the supreme busi- 
ness of the Christian ministry, I am 
powerless to lead that soul unless there 
is an acceptance of the Bible as the 
Word of God, and the Final Authority 
in determining the Eternal destiny of 
mankind. 

Possibly one of the saddest things that 
the mind of man can conceive, is to see 
immortal souls adrift on a sea of doubt, 
like a ship adrift without a pilot, and 
without a harbor of safety in sight. To- 
day there are thousands of souls, both 
in the churches and outside the 
churches who are drifting on the stormy 



seas of doubt, in a continual state of un- 
rest of soul, and likely to be shipwrecked 
at any moment, because they are not 
sure that the Bible which they would 
like to take as their guide to Eternal 
Truth and Life, is the Word of God. 

The consciousness of this state of un- 
rest in the hearts and lives of so many, 
has called forth the pages of this volume 
and I am glad to know, that in part at 
least, its purpose has been reached. 
Some of the members of my congrega- 
tion came to me on one occasion and in- 
formed me that they didn't like to hear 
me preach from the Old Testament, 
and when I asked why, replied: "Well, 
there are so many strange things in the 
Old Testament that I can't believe that 
God ever had anything to do with it." The 
incident is a very common one, and gave 
reason for the address "The Relation of 
the Old and New Testament," which, 
after it had been delivered, caused these 
same people to come to me again, with 
the words : "We will never again say 
anything against the Old Testament." 

7 



Thank God, it had accomplished the 
purpose for which it was prepared, and 
it is now sent forth with the other ad- 
dresses, with a prayer, that many souls 
may be comforted by the teachings of 
the Bible as the Word of God. 

Dr. Halley, the English astronomer, 
once said something disrespectful about 
religioninthepresenceof Sir Isaac New- 
ton, when Newton silenced him by say- 
ing: "I have studied these things; you 
have not." In these pages I have not 
tried to merely express my own mind, 
but the minds of the great men of the 
world, who have studied these things, 
and then after several years of study, 
saving and filing away, I now give out 
what has been of great help to myself. 

J. T. SHARMAN. 



8 



CHAPTER I. 

The Bible— Is It Popular? 

The right answer to the question of 
the popularity of the Bible certainly de- 
mands our keenest investigation. To 
answer the question indefinitely, yes 
and no. If we would judge its popular- 
ity from the number of persons who 
make it their business to spend a certain 
portion of each day in the study of its 
pages, ^ve would be compelled to say, 
no; the Bible is not popular, even among 
the professing church. We read in the 
Acts of the Apostles of a class of Chris- 
.tian people who went by the name of 
Bereans, because they made it their 
business to study God's Word each day, 
but today the number of individuals in 
the average church congregation, who 
follow the example of the Bereans are 
comparatively few. In fact, it is amaz- 
ing that so great ignorance prevails 
among classes who are generally ac- 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

credited with a knowledge of the Bible. 

A few years ago the New York Inde- 
pendent, writes Dr.W.W.White, told of 
a college president in the Middle West, 
who tested thirty-four freshmen by 
giving them twenty-two extracts from 
Tennyson, each of which contained an 
allusion to some Scriptural truth or 
scene, and asking for explanations. 
These students were the sons of preach- 
ers, teachers, lawyers, merchants and 
farmers, and their matriculation showed 
that all except one declared ecclesiastic- 
al' affiliation. More than half of them 
claimed adherence to the Congregation- 
al and Presbyterian churches, which, as 
well as if not better than any, are sup- 
posed to represent intelligent Bible 
knowledge. Fifteen of the twenty-two 
extracts given were from the Old Testa- 
ment. Referring to these alone, the fol- 
lowing is the report as given by the ex- 
aminer: Eleven failed to apprehend the 
"manna on my wilderness," sixteen 
were ignorant of the significance of 

10 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

Striking the rock, a like number knew 
nothing of the wrestling of Jacob and 
the angel; only two of the thirty-four 
ever heard of the shadow turning back 
on the dial of the Ahaz; twenty-six were 
ignorant of Joshua's moon; nineteen 
failed to indicate the peculiar condition 
of Esau's hand; twenty-four failed to 
explain the allusion to Baal; nineteen 
had never read of Ruth and Boaz; eigh- 
teen failed to indicate the meaning of 
Pharoah's darkness; twenty-eight were 
laid low by the question of Jacob's 
gourd; only nine were able to explain the 
the allusion to Lot's wife; eleven did 
not understand the mark which Cain 
bore; twenty-four were unable to write 
anything about Jepthah's vow and eleven 
were unable to explain the allusion to 
Jacob's ladder. In a word, out of a pos- 
sible seven hundred and forty-eight cor- 
rect answers, only three hundred and 
twenty-eight were given. Now, this is, 
of course, an extreme case, yet it is in- 
deed lamentable that individual Chris- 

11 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

tians do not study the Bible more than 
they do, when it is so essential to Chris- 
tian Hfe and character. And so I say, 
judging the popularity of the Bible 
by the number who give it a daily study, 
we are compelled to say no, it is not pop- 
ular. But is this not judging the popu- 
larity of the Bible in the extreme sense, 
and this criticism is hardly fair and just. 
Well, then, how shall we pursue our 
enquiry? We will do so, first according 
to 

Its Place in the World of Literature. 

If you would study the history of lit- 
erature, you must know the Bible, for 
hundreds of thousands of volumes in 
our great libraries were written because 
the Bible exists. Possibly more books 
have been written on Theology than up- 
on anything else in the world, and 
whence the source of Theology, the 
greatest science in the world and 
Theology would be unintelligible with- 
out the Bible. The same is true of the 

12 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

books on Archaeology. The Bible is the 
key to the understanding of the discov- 
eries of Archaeology, and without it, 
this science would be unexplained. And 
who has failed to notice the large place 
given to the Bible in poetical literature. 
The works of Shakespeare, and Tenny- 
son and Longfellow and Browning teem 
with it. It is said that there are in 
Shakespeare's works alone, more than 
five hundred and fifty biblical quota- 
tions and allusions, that he quotes 
from fifty-four of the biblical books, 
and that not one of his thirty-seven 
plays is without a Scriptural reference. 
Professor Clark, writing in his "Cloud 
of Witnesses" declares that Lord Ten- 
•nyson's debt to the Bible, is one of the 
most striking incidents in the history of 
letters. It sustains Professor Huxley's 
admission that the Bible has been wov- 
en into all that is best in English litera- 
ture. There are four hundred and six- 
ty quotations and allusions in the Lau- 
reate's works, two hundred and one 

13 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

from the Old Testament and 259 from 
the New Testament, and these quo- 
tations are from fifty-two out of the six- 
ty-six books of the Bible. 

Benjamin Franklin the American 
statesman and phisosopher, tells of how, 
in early life, he was an avowed skeptic 
and of loose morality, but later his prac- 
tical good sense, led him to correct his 
immoral tendencies, and to respect at 
least, the Christian system, though he 
at no time professed decidedly any re- 
ligious faith. During his residence in 
Paris, he was at one time in company 
with certain skeptical courtiers who 
were commenting with severity on the 
Bible. They appealed to Franklin. He 
replied: "I am hardly prepared to give a 
suitable answer, as my mind has been 
occupied of late by the merits of a cer- 
tain book which I found in one of the 
book stores in Paris, and which I think 
of rare excellence." The company de- 
sired him to read certain passages. He 
consented, opening and reading the 

14 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

prayer of Habakkuk. All were deeply 
impressed with the grandeur and sub- 
limity of the passage and expressed 
great eagerness to know the title of the 
rare book, the name of its author, and if 
the passage read was a specimen of the 
merits of the book. Franklin, with a 
smile of triumph, replied: ''This passage 
is from the Bible." 

But Benjamin Franklin is not the '»n- 
ly one who highly prizes the literatui*e 
of the prophet Habakkuk. Daniel Web- 
ster reads another portion of this ?ame 
book, and regards it as one of the sub- 
limest passages in sacred literature. He 
tells of how, on one occasion, a small 
company of select friends spent an even- 
ing at his house. Tea over, the Bible 
and the relative beauty of its several 
parts, became the topic of conversation. 
Each one of the guests had a preference. 
When the turn came to Webster, he 
said: "The masterpiece of the New Tes- 
tament is of course, the Sermon on the 
Mount. That has no rival, no equal. As 

15 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

to the Old Testament writings, my fav- 
orite book is that of Habakkuk, and nn^ 
favorite verses, chapter 3. 17, 18,: 'Al- 
though the fig tree shall not blossom, 
neither shall fruit be in the vines — tlie 
labour of the olive shall fail, and the 
fields shall yield no meat — the flock 
shall be cut ofif, and there shall be no 
herds in the stall — yet v^ill I rejoice in 
the Lord and joy in the God 
of my salvation. This,'' continued 
Webster, "I regard as one of the 
sublimest passages of inspired litera- 
ture." And often have I v^ondered that 
some artist equal to the task, has not 
selected the Prophet and his scene of 
desolation as the subject of a painting. 
"When in Paris some years ago," con- 
tinued Webster, 'T received an account 
of a French infidel, v^ho happened to 
find in the dravs^er of his library some 
stray leaves of an unknown volume. Al- 
though in the constant habit of de- 
nouncing the Bible, like most infidel 
writers he had never read any part of it. 

16 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

These fugitive leaves contained the 
above prayer of Habakkuk. Being a man 
of fine literary taste, he was captivated 
with its poetic beauty, and. hastened to 
the club-house to announce the discov- 
ery to his associates. Of course they 
were anxious to know the name of the 
gifted author, to which inquiries the 
elated infidel replied: 'A writer by the 
name of Ha-ba-kook, of course a 
Frenchman.' Judge of the infidel's sur- 
prise when informed that the passage 
he was so enthusiastically admiring was 
not produced by one of his own country- 
men, nor by one of his own class of so- 
called free-thinkers, but was penned by 
one of God's ancient Prophets, and was 
contained in that much despised book, 
the Bible." 

Speaking of its place in the World of 
Literature, Charles Dudley Warner 
says, ''Wholly apart from its religious, 
or from its ethical value, the Bible is the 
one book that no intelligent person can 
afford to be ignorant of. All modern 

17 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

literature and all modern art are perme- 
ated with it. There is scarcely a great 
work in the language that can be fully 
understood and enjoyed without this 
knowledge, so full is it of allusions and 
illustrations from the Bible. It is not a 
question of religion, or theology, or of 
dogma, it is a question of general intelli- 
gence. A boy or girl at college in the 
presence of the works set forth for eith- 
er to master, without a fair knowledge 
of the Bible is an ignoramus and is dis- 
advantaged accordingly.'' It is sincerely 
hoped that these words of Warner will 
fall on the ears of a large number of our 
young men and women of this genera- 
tion. 

I was very much impressed upon 
reading an article some time ago, on 
"Why Senator Beveridge carries a Bi- 
ble." The Senator says, 'T carry a Bi- 
ble with me as a matter of literary relax- 
ation. The tellers of the Bible stories, 
tell the stories and stop. "He builded a 
city" — "He took her to his mother's 

18 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

tent." You are not worried to death by 
the details. Go into any audience ad- 
dressed by a public speaker, and you 
will perceive that his hearers interest 
depends on whether he is getting to the 
point. ''Well, Why doesn't he get to the 
point?" is the common expression in 
public assemblages. The Bible ''gets to 
the point; and it has something for ev- 
erybody. If you are a politician, or even 
a statesman, no matter how shrewd you 
are you can read with profit several 
times a year, the career of David the 
cleverest politician and one of the great- 
est statesmen that ever lived. If vou 
are a business man, the Proverbs of Sol- 
omon will tone you up like mountain 
air. If you are a woman, read Ruth. A 
man of practical life, a great man, but 
purely a man of the world, once said to 
me, "If I could enact one statute for all 
the young women of America, it would 
be that each one of them should read the 
book of Ruth once a month." 

And what place shall we give to Mil- 

19 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

ton, the author of "Paradise Lost, and 
Paradise Regained," and to John Bun- 
yan, the author of ''Pilgrim's Progress" 
in the field of Biblical Literature, to say 
nothing of the rest, and so, if we would 
judge the popularity of the Bible from 
the place it occupies in the World of 
Literature, we are drawn to admit that 
the Bible is indeed very popular. 

We search the world for truth; we 

cull 
The good, the pure, the beautiful 
From graven stone and written scroll, 
From the old flower-fields of the soul; 
And, weary seekers of the best. 
We come back laden with our quest, 
To find that all the sages said 
Is in the Book our Mothers read." 

2. — The Testimony of Great Men. 

If there is any one message that is 
proclaimed in the Bible today it is this; 
"The Divine plan of Human Redemp- 
tion for All People." This to me was the 
message of the Apostle Paul, when he 

20 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

wrote to the Christian Church at Rome 
"I am a debtor both to the Greek and to 
the Barbarians, to the wise and to the 
unwise; so as much as in me is, I am 
ready to preach the gospel to you that 
are at Rome also" Romans 1:14. 15. 
Now this message of Pauls is being ful- 
filled and accepted today. There is a 
common complaint made today, al- 
though absolutely without foundation, 
that the Bible is not equal to the de- 
mand of the educated people of today, 
and that it is only accepted by the un- 
learned and ignorant, and they say that 
this is why people are accepting the 
learned teachings of Mrs. Eddy and 
others. Now if this be true, let me say 
that it is not because of their abundance 
of intelligence, for I have yet to find one 
person who has an intelligent under- 
standing of Christian Science. 

But then again can it not be truly said 
that the greatest intellects of to-day are 
found in our churches on the Lord's day 
worshiping the God of the Bible. While 

21 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

it is true that the Bible is so plain that 
the wayfaring man though a fool need 
not err therein, yet the keenest intel- 
lects in all ,the various callings of life 
have bowed their heads and hearts be- 
fore the presence of God, and worshiped 
Him and have gladly learned of His 
laws and precepts, and have accepted 
them. To satisfy my own mind that this 
were really so, I have given this matter 
a special study, endeavoring to find out 
the place the Bible has occupied and to- 
day does occupy in the minds of great 
men. 

In pursuing our study, let us give to 
our own Presidents, and American 
Statesmen the honor of heading this 
list of great men to speak on this mat- 
ter. Writing to President Roosevelt, 
now Ex-President, I asked Mr. Roose- 
velt to what place in his mind did he 
give the Bible, and replying through 
Secretary Loeb he sent me a copy of an 
address delivered by himself before the 
American Bible Society, from which I 

22 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

have taken the following extracts; ''Ev- 
ery thinking man, v^hen he thinks, real- 
izes what a very large number of people 
tend to forget, that the teachings of the 
Bible are so interwoven and entwined 
with our whole civic and social life that 
it would be literally — I do not mean 
figuratively I mean literally — impossi- 
ble for us to figure to ourselves what 
that life would be if these teachings 
were removed. We would lose almost 
all the standards by which we now 
judge both public and private morals; 
all the standards towards which we, 
with more or less resolution, strive to 
raise ourselves" — ''The Bible has been 
the Magna Charta of the poor and the 
oppressed. Down to modern times, no 
State has had a constitution in which 
the interests of the people are so largely 
taken into account; in which the duties, 
so much more than the privileges, of 
rulers are insisted upon, as drawn up for 
Israel in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. 
Nowhere is the fundamental truth that 

23 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

the welfare of the State in the long run, 
depends upon the righteousness of the 
citizen, so strongly laid down. The Bi- 
ble is the most Democratic book in the 
world" — "If we read the Bible aright, 
we read a book which teaches us to go 
forth in the work of the Lord; to do the 
work of the Lord in the world as we find 
it; to try and make things better in this 
world, even if only a little better, be- 
cause we have lived in it. That kind of 
work can only be done by the man who 
is neither a weakling nor a coward; by 
the man who in the fullest sense of the 
word is a true Christian, like Great 
Heart, Bunyan's hero. We plead for a 
closer and wider and deeper study of 
the Bible, so that our people may be in 
fact as well as in theory, doers of the 
word and not hearers only. Surely we 
have reason to be thankful for the es- 
teem and reverence which Ex-President 
Roosevelt gives to the Bible. 

Next to Mr. Roosevelt we will consid- 
er the testimony of our beloved mar- 

24 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

tyred President, Abraham Lincoln. 
Who has not yet become acquainted 
with Lincoln as a man of faith in God, 
and one who was acquainted with the 
Scriptures. For some reason or another 
there seems to be great diversity of opin- 
ion as to the religious sentiments of Mr. 
Lincoln. Some people are unwilling to 
admit that Lincoln was a Christian man, 
while others are totally ignorant of his 
attitude toward religious things. That 
we might be thus enlightened, I quote 
from a recent issue of the Literary Di- 
gest, the statement of Dr. Jacquess, who 
was Colonel of the Seventy-third Regi- 
ment, Illinois Infantry Volunteers, dur- 
ing the Civil War, also a Methodist 
Preacher at Springfield in the days of 
Lincoln. Dr. Jacquess writes. "The 
mention of Mr. Lincoln's name, recalls 
to my mind an occurrence that perhaps 
I ought to mention. I notice that a num- 
ber of lectures are being delivered on 
Abraham Lincoln, but they all when 
they reach one point, run against a 

25 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

stone wall and that is in reference to 
Mr. Lincoln's religious sentiments. I 
happen to know something on that sub- 
ject that very few persons know. My 
wife, who has been dead nearly two 
years, was the only witness of what I 
am going to state to you as having oc- 
curred. Very soon after my second 
year's work as minister in the Illinois 
Conference, I was sent to Springfield. 
There were ministers in the Illinois 
Conference, who had been laboring for 
twenty-five years to get to Springfield 
the capital of the State. When the leg- 
islature met there were a great many 
people here and it was thought to be a 
matter of great glory among the minis- 
ters to be sent to Springfield. But I was 
not pleased with my assignment. I felt 
my inability to perform the work. I did 
not know what to do. I simply talked 
to the Lord about it, however, and told 
him that unless I had help I was going 
to run away. I heard a voice saying to 
me, 'Fear not,' and I understood it per- 

2b 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

fectly. Now I am coming to the point I 
want to make. I was standing at the 
parsonage door one Sunday morning, a 
beautiful morning in May, when a little 
boy came up to me and said: 'Mr. Lin- 
coln sent me round to see if you was go- 
ing to preach to-day.' Now I had met 
Mr. Lincoln, but I never thought any 
more of Abe Lincoln than I did of any- 
one else. I said to the boy: 'You go 
back and tell Mr. Lincoln that if he will 
come to church he will see whether I am 
going to preach or not.' The little fel- 
low stood working his fingers and final- 
ly said: 'Mr. Lincoln told me he would 
give me a quarter if I would find out 
whether you are going to preach.' I did 
not want to rob the little fellow of his 
income, so I told him to tell Mr. Lincoln 
that I was going to try to preach. I was al- 
ways ready and willing to accept any as- 
sistance that came along, and whenever 
a preacher or one who had any pretense 
in that direction would come along I 
would thrust him into the pulpit and 

27 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

make him preach because I felt that any- 
body could do better than I could. The 
church was filled that morning. It was 
a good-sized church, but on that day all 
the seats were filled. I had chosen for 
my text the words, "Ye must be born 
again,' and during the course of my ser- 
mon, I laid particular stress on the word 
^must'. Mr. Lincoln came into the 
church after the services had com- 
menced, and there being no vacant 
seats, chairs were put in the altar in 
front of the pulpit and Mr. Lincoln and 
Governor French and his wife, sat in the 
altar during the entire service, Mr. Lin- 
coln on my left and Governor French on 
my right. I noticed that Mr. Lincoln 
appeared to be deeply interested in the 
sermon. A few days after that Sunday, 
Mr. Lincoln called on me and informed 
me that he had been greatly impressed 
with my remarks on Sunday and that he 
had come to talk with me further on the 
matter. I invited him in and my wife 
and I talked and prayed with him for 

28 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

hours. Now I have seen many persons 
converted; I have seen hundreds 
brought to Christ and if ever a person 
v^as converted, Abraham Lincoln was 
converted that night in my house. His 
wife was a Presbyterian, but Mr. Lin- 
coln was not inclined that way. He nev- 
er joined my church, but I will always 
believe that since that night, Abraham 
Lincoln lived and died a Christian gen- 
tleman.' What a beautiful sight it must 
have been, to see this great man; great 
in body, great in mind, great in spirit 
bow before Almighty God, repentant 
and seeking pardon for his sins. And 
how well did he display the beautiful 
graces of his Christian character in the 
walk of his life. Just after his first elec- 
tion as president, Mr. Lincoln made this 
declaration of faith. 'I know there is a 
God, and that He hates injustice and 
slavery. I see the storm coming and I 
know His hand is in it. If He has a place 
and work for me — and I think He has — 
I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but 

29 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

truth is everything. I know I am 
right, because I know that liberty is 
right, for Christ teaches it and 
Christ is God. I have told them that a 
house divided against itself cannot 
stand and Christ and reason say the 
same; and they will find it so. Douglass 
doesn't care whether slavery is voted up 
or down, but God cares and humanity 
cares, and I care; and I shall be vindi- 
cated; and these men will find that they 
have not read their Bibles aright.' An- 
other occasion when Lincoln though 
president of the United States, dis- 
played his spirit of reverence and wor- 
ship for the God of the Bible, was dur- 
ing the Gettysburg campaign. When 
tremendous issues depended on a turn of 
battle. General Sickles asked the Presi- 
dent if he had felt no fears when all 
others were alarmed. 'No' said Lincoln, 
and added : 'Well I will tell you how it 
was. In the pinch of your campaign, 
when everybody seemed panic stricketi 
and nobody could tell what was going 

30 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

to happen, oppressed by the gravity of 
our affairs, I went to my room one day 
and locked the door and got down on 
my knees before Almighty God md 
prayed to him mightily for victory jit 
Gettysburg. I told Him that was His 
war and our cause His cause. And I 
then and there made a solemn vow to 
Almighty God that if He would stand 
by the boys at Gettysburg I would give 
my life to Him. And He did and I will. 
And after that — I don't know how it 
was and I can't explain it — but soon a 
sweet comfort crept into my soul th •/. 
things would be alright at Gettysburg 
and that is why I had no fears about 
you." Who knows, but that the victory 
at Gettysburg was won because Presi- 
dent Lincoln prayed. 

Ex-President Grover Cleveland, who 
recently passed to his reward, likewise 
was a man who embraced the teachings 
of the Bible. The New York Commer- 
cial, referring to a letter written by Mr 
Cleveland, has this to say, 'Writing tc a 

31 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Baltimore clergyman, who had written 
a book on the New Testament and 
which Mr. Cleveland was asked to pre- 
face, he wrote, T very much hop-^, that 
in sending out this book, you will do 
something to invite more attention 
among the masses of our people to the 
study of the New Testament and the Bi- 
ble as a whole. It seems to me that in 
these days there is an unhappy falling 
off in our appreciation of the import- 
ance of this study. I do not believe as a 
people, that we can afford to allow our 
interest in and veneration for the Bible 
to abate. I look upon it as the source 
from which those who study it in spirit 
and truth will derive strength of char- 
acter, a realization of the duty of citi- 
zenship and a true apprehension of the 
power and wisdom and mercy of God/' 
Patrick Henry, one of our great Americ- 
an Statesmen and orators, upon being 
visited by a friend who found him read- 
ing his Bible, said, 'Here is a book worth 
more than all the other books which ever 

32 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

were printed; yet it is my misfortune, 
never to have till lately, found time to 
read it with proper attention and feel- 
ing/ And just before he died, calling 
his family into his room that he might 
take of them his last farev^ell, Patrick 
Henry held in his hands a copy of the 
Bible and addressing them said, 'My 
children I leave you this book, it is the 
greatest legacy that could come into 
your possession/ And v^hat shall we 
say to the scores, yes hundred of brainy 
men, who in this country of ours have 
borne testimony to their acceptance of 
the Bible. 

A few weeks ago a Christian gentle- 
man occupying a high position in life, 
spoke from the platform of one of our 
city churches, and among his remarks 
said some things which made me wish 
than many others, especially the busi- 
ness and professional men of our city 
might have heard them. And so at the 
close of the service, I approached this 
gentleman and asked him if he would 

33 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

write down on paper for me the remarks 
which I coveted, he kindly consented 
and now I take pleasure in passing them 
on to A^ou. 

To whom it may concern : — 

The Christian religion appeals to me 
as not only worthy of the endorsement 
of the thinking man, but of his unquali- 
fied advocacy by public speech as oppor- 
tunity may offer, and in view of the 
many narrow minded excuses offered 
for failure on the part of many to em- 
brace its principles, I make no apology 
for standing upon any platform before 
any company of people and in the digni- 
ty of my manhood, both endorse and 
proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and 
Salvation in His Name as worthy of the 
acceptance of any man. So many men 
surround the plans of Almighty God in 
His dealings with mankind, with a hori- 
zon limited by the capacity of their own 
narrow intellects, that it comes near be- 
ing a duty for the thinking man to lift his 

34 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

hand and voice above the throng and in- 
vite any v^eaker mind or hesitating 
friend to come up and join him in the en- 
joyment of a higher Spiritual atmos- 
phere and come into that perfect peace 
with God v^hich smooths the path of hu- 
manity to and through Eternity. 

GEO F. BIDWELL, 
General Manager, Chi. & Northwest, 
Railway Lines, West of the Missouri 
River. 

Omaha, Nebraska, Nov. '06. 

From among the cloud of witnesses, 
further representing the intellect of the 
world, we appeal to England and we 
give the first place to speak, to Queen 
Victoria. An African Prince who was 
sent on an embassy with costly presents 
for Queen Victoria from an Ethiopian 
court, preferred a modest request that 
Her Majesty would tell him the secret 
of England's greatness and glory. 
Queen Victoria did not, like Hezekiah, 
show the ambassador her diamonds and 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

her precious jewels and her rich orna- 
ments, but handing him a beautifully 
bound copy of the Bible, said, ''Tell the 
prince that this is the secret of Eng- 
land's greatness/ What a beautiful tes- 
timony from the Queen of England. Let 
me give another illustration of Queen 
Victoria's acceptance and faith in the 
teachings of the Bible. 'In a quiet cot- 
tage not far distant from Windsor Cas- 
tle, the palace of the Queen, there lived 
some years ago, an aged Christian wo- 
man, who had seen nearly her hun- 
dredth year. The Queen having heard 
of this aged pilgrim decided to visit her. 
Great indeed was the joy of the old lady, 
as she looked on the face of her earthly 
sovereign. She exclaimed, 'What a joy, 
and what an honor to me that my Queen 
should come to see me.' Then she add- 
ed joyfully, 'But I expect a greater joy, 
a greater honor still and that before 
long, I am going to see 'the King in His 
beauty,' Then softly and with much 
feeling, the aged saint enquired, 'May I 

36 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

venture to ask if your Majesty has such 
a hope?' Calmly, Queen Victoria the 
Sovereign of Great Britain and Empress 
of India, replied to the aged Pilgrim: 
'Through Jesus Christ v^^hose blood 
cleanseth from all sin, I have such a 
hope.' 

Victoria has since passed to the reali- 
zation of her hope and certainly her con- 
fession is w^orthy of the attention of all 
under the British flag, yes, and of every 
one else besides, for it expresses the only 
way of access into the presence of a 
Holy and Righteous God; the only title 
to a home in heaven being "The Pre- 
cious Blood of Christ." 

To this let us add the testimony of the 
late William E. Gladstone, commonly 
known as England's Grand Old Man. 
The relation of Gladstone to the Bible 
was such that he wrote a book which he 
called ''The Impregnable Rock of Holy 
Scripture" and in which he says, "The 
historical development of our Religion, 
is one of the most wonderful parts of all 

37 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

human history and in my opinion af- 
fords one of the strongest demonstra- 
tions of its truth and of the power and 
goodness of God." On another occa- 
sion he wrote, "All I write and all I 
think and all I am, is based on my un- 
feigned faith in the Divinity of Jesus 
Christ, the one central hope of our poor 
wayward race." 

The Detroit News-Tribune recently 
published the Confession of Faith of Sir 
Oliver Lodge. Sir Oliver Lodge, Prin- 
cipal of the University of Birmingham, 
England, is one of the highest authorit- 
ies in science, a master in physics, who 
sees as far as any man into the wonder- 
ful mechanism that links together all 
material things from atoms to stars. 
Yet he boldly opposes all mechanical 
and materialistic views of life and the 
universe. He is equally outspoken as a 
Christian and has recently formulated 
his creed. "I believe in one Infinite and 
Eternal Being, a guiding and loving Fa- 
ther, in whom all things consist. I be- 

38 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

lieve that the Divine Nature is especial- 
ly revealed to men through Jesus Christ 
our Lord, who lived and taught and suf- 
fered in Palestine 1,900 years ago, and 
has since been worshipped by the Chris- 
tian Church as the immortal Son of God 
the Saviour of the world. I believe that 
man is privileged to understand and as- 
sist the Divine purpose on this earth, 
that prayer is a means of communica- 
tion between man and God, and that the 
Holy Spirit is ever ready to help us 
along the way towards goodness and 
truth, so that by unselfish service we 
may gradually enter into the life etern- 
al, the communion of saints and the 
peace of God." Let me give the testi- 
mony of one more great man, the poet 
Coleridge. In the storehouse of anti- 
quities and curiosities of the British Mu- 
seum, is a volume which belonged to the 
well known Coleridge. On the margin 
of that book the great man wrote with 
pencil the following words: "For a 
great part of my life I did not know that 

39 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

I was poor and naked and blind and mis- 
erable. And even after I did know that, 
I did not feel it aright. But I thank 
God I feel it now somewhat as it ought 
to be felt. Stand aside, my pride, and 
let me see that ugly sight — myself. I 
have been deceived all my life by say- 
ings of philosophers, by scraps of poet- 
ry, but most of all by the pride of my 
own heart, into an opinion of self power, 
which the scriptures plainly tell me and 
my repeated failures tell me that I pos- 
sess not. It is the design of the faith of 
Jesus Christ to change men's views, to 
change their lives and to change their 
very tempers. Yes, but how? By the 
superior excellence of its precepts? By 
the weight of its exhortations, or by the 
promise of its rewards ? No, but by con- 
vincing men of their wretchedness and 
guilt and blindness and helplessness. By 
inculcating the necessity of the remis- 
sion of sins and the necessity of Super- 
natural light and assistance and by 
promising to the penitent sinner and by 

40 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

actually conveying to him these evan- 
gelical blessings/' These words of Col- 
eridge certainly show a firm belief in the 
Faith of the Bible. 

And to these testimonies already giv- 
en, I could add the testimonies of the 
Hon. John Bright and Sir, Walter 
Scott and of Lord Overton of England, 
the Emperor of Germany, the Emperor 
and Empress of China, Baron UxkuU of 
Russia, — to say nothing of the many 
that I know nothing about. 

Surely from all these testimonials, 
representing shall I say the brams of the 
world; we must acknowledge that 
though the common and poorer classes 
heard Jesus willingly, yet His truths 
have found their way into the hearts and 
minds of the more highly intellectual al- 
so. 

Rest in my reverent hand, 

O Chart, whereby 
Lost man may understand 

His destiny; 
What his appointed way 

41 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

And what the goal, 
And what the powers that slay 
Or save the soul. 

(Bishop of Derry) 

3. — The Bible in Circulation. 

Now we come to the third division 
under the general heading, "The Bible 
is it Popular?'' namely, "The Bible in 
Circulation" and we will study it under 
three sub-divisions. First, from the 
Bookseller's point of view. Second, 
from the Student standpoint and Third 
from the standpoint of Publication and 
Distribution. 

First, the Bible in circulation from 
the Bookseller's point of view. Having 
heard that the Bible was the best selling 
book on the book market to-day, but un- 
willing to believe all I hear, I decided to 
investigate the matter for myself. From 
a number of replies which I received, 
from some of the leading publishing 
houses in this country, in answer to the 
question "How does the Bible compare 

42 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

in sales, with the most popular book 
sold on the market to-day? I submit the 
following from the Fleming H. Revell 
Publishing Company, with branch hous- 
es in Chicago, New York, Toronto, Lon- 
don and Edinburgh. 
Dear Sir: — 

Replying to your letter of recent date 
will say that there is no book that equals 
in sale that of the Bible in its varied ed- 
itions. Moreover, it is about the only 
book that booksellers are free to buy 
without any fear of having any dead 
stock left on the shelves. 

From the Western Methodist Book 
Concern, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Dear Brother: — 

In response to your favor of the 
ninteenth, relative to the sales of Bibles, 
will state that this is still the best selling 
book published; that is of one title; we 
know of no other single book which 
equals this on the number sold. 

From the Oxford University Press, 
New York. 

43 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Dear Sir: — 

In answer to your question, if we 
think that the sales of the Bible, equal in 
number the sales of any other book of- 
fered on the market, would say, that the 
sales are not only equal, but ten times as 
many. 

From the American Baptist Publica- 
tion Society, Philadelphia. 

Dear Brother: — 

I have your favor of January 19, and 
in reply to your question, would say, 
that the sales of the Bible not only equal 
but surpass the sales of any other book 
offered on the market. The best selling 
book for the past twenty-five years has 
been the Bible. 

From the Presbyterian Board of Pub- 
lication, Chicago. 

Dear Sir: — 

I have your enquiry of the 24th. I am 
not in a position to know the compara- 
tive sales of Bibles with other books, but 
have been told, and am quite sure that 

44 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

the information was authentic, that the 
sale of Bibles very far exceeds that of 
any other book ever published. 

To these let me add the words of Dr. 
W. W. Pratt, one of the District Secre- 
taries of the American Baptist Puli- 
cation Society, who writes: ''The popu- 
larity of the Bible is indicated by its 
sales and distribution. When in the 
Providence of God, John Gutenburg, at 
Mayence, invented the movable types 
and used them to first print the Bible; 
and when Baron Karl Hildebrand Von 
Canstein used the first stereotype plates 
in 1712, to print the New Testament so 
that the poor of Germany might have it, 
then God gave to His Book the first 
place amongall books, and it has been kept 
there. There is no book of any kind — 
the classics or common fiction — which 
has sales equal to that of the Bible. Ev- 
ery year there are sold as many Bibles 
as the combined sales of hundreds of the 
most attractive novels. 

Let me cite one instance of the popu- 

45 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

lar sales of the Bible. It is well known 
to almost every one that in the year i8- 
8i, the year that the Revised Version of 
the Scriptures were issued, that so great 
was the demand that two million copies 
were ordered before the Book was pub- 
lished at all and that same vear, one 
publishing house in this country of- 
fered five hundred dollars for one single 
copy in advance and every word of the 
New Testament, from Matthew to Rev- 
elation was telegraphed from New York 
to Chicago, making the longest message 
that was ever sent over the wires. And 
not only in this country, but in other 
countries as well, the Bible is the most 
popular selling book. In Syria, the Ara- 
bic Bible is the best selling book, there 
having been sold since its translation in- 
to that language, over six million copies 
and in Cairo, one colporter sold in six 
months, 2,689 copies of the Bible and 
translated into eleven different languag- 
es. Thus we have the popularity of the 
Bible from the bookseller's point of view. 

46 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

Secondfrom the student standpoint. One 
of the greatest testimonies of the popu- 
larity of the Bible is the number of 
young men and women, and boys and 
girls, who are engaged in the study of 
its pages, both in the class room and in 
the home and this is more striking 
when one considers the growth of Bible 
study in recent years. Apart from our 
theological seminaries and divinity 
schools, there exists a large number of 
organizations for the express study of 
the Bible. The largest single organiza- 
tion in the world is the Sunday school. 
]\lr. Hugh Cork, secretary to Mr. Law- 
rance, the general secretary of the In- 
ternational Sunday School Association, 
writes me that the total enrollment of 
the Sunday Schools of the world, is 
about thirty millions, and of this num- 
ber more than one-half are enrolled in 
the Sunday Schools of the United States 
and Canada, there being 15,110,172. An- 
other striking feature in Bible study is 

47 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

the New Adult Bible Class Movement. 
Mr. David C. Cook, the founder of this 
movement, writes that is is impossible 
to state to what extent the New Adult 
Bible Class Movement has grown, but it 
has been estimated that from a million 
and a half to two millions have been en- 
rolled within the past three years. It 
used to be said that the Sunday School 
was the place for the boys and girls, but 
thank God, the Sundav School is becom- 
ing known as the place for men and wo- 
men, also. 

Next to the Sunday School, the 
Young Men's Christian Association fol- 
lows with large numbers enrolled in 
Bible study classes. The World's Alli- 
ance of Y. M. C. A's, according to the 
general statistics drawn up by the inter- 
national committee in Geneva, reports a 
membership of 800,573, ^-s against 761,- 
056 in 1907, and of this number 106,453 
students, including college men, are en- 
rolled in the Bible study classes of 
North America. 

48 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

Another organization which is doing 
much for the furtherance of Bible studv 
is the "World's Student Christian Fed- 
eration," an organization which unites 
fully 15,000 Christian societies of stu- 
dents scattered throughout t hirty na- 
tions of the world. Mr. Edward Jenk- 
ins, secretary of the New York ofhce, 
writes that there are 73,000 students en- 
rolled in the classes of the federation. 

Another splendid organization is the 
International Bible Reading Associa- 
tion, for the purpose of a daily reading 
of the Sacred Word. This association 
reported in 1907 a membership of 950,- 
000, a growth of 36,000 annually since 
the date of the organization. 

Perhaps the most popular institution 
in this country, where the study of the 
Bible is made a specialty under the di- 
rection of the most efficient teachers, is 
the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 
founded by the late D. L. Moody in 
1886. Since its organization 5,341 stu- 
dents have been enrolled in its regular 

49 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

classes and in addition to this, 1,387 
have been enrolled in the evening 
classes, while 1,071 others have been en- 
rolled in the correspondence course. The 
extent of this Bible study will be better 
understood when we consider that 460 
of these students have gone to the for- 
eign mission fields. And then there is 
the Scofield Bible Correspondence 
Course, with over 4,000 students, and 
distributed over every state in the Union 
and in thirty-four foreign countries, to 
sav nothing of the remaining Bible 
schools which space would forbid to 
mention. And what shall we say of the 
spread of the Bible study as the result of 
the great Bible conferences which are 
held each year in this country and other 
countries. The Northfield conference, 
the Winona, the Montrose, the Sea Clii¥ 
and others in this country, and in Eng- 
land the great Keswick convention. 
Surely these few facts and figures, from 
the student standpoint, teach us that the 

50 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

Bible is indeed very popular and is be- 
coming more so every year. 

Third, from the point of publication 
and distribution. We have already had 
the testimony of the bookseller, to the 
Bible as the most popular book on the 
market, and this is surely corroborated 
by the output and distribution of Bibles 
at the present day. The 104th annual 
report of the British and Foreign Bible 
Society, the largest Bible society in the 
world, states that the number of langu- 
ages on the society's list is now 412, 
among which are thirty translations for 
the blind, while the translation of the 
Bible will soon be completed in five 
more different Asiatic languages. This 
society's issue for the past year was 5,- 
934,711, comprising Bibles, New Testa- 
ments and portions of Scripture. 

The National Bible Society of Scot- 
land reported in 1908 the distribution of 
2,056,395 copies of Scripture, and the 
American Bible Society reported last 
year the distribution of 2,153,028 Bibles, 

51 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

New Testaments and portions of Scrip- 
tures. The Oxford University Press, 
said to have the largest sale of Bibles in 
the world, reported last year the sale of 
over a million Oxford Bibles alone. This 
society estimates an annual output of 5,- 
000,000 Bibles, while other authorities 
report that during the past century 
there has been an output of 316,000,000 
copies, translated into 475 languages, of 
which 432 translations were made dur- 
ing the nineteenth centur^^ Surely 
these figures are astonishing. Con- 
trast if you can the endurance of any 
other book with the Bible. It has been 
said that out of one thousand books 
printed, six hundred never pay the cost 
of printing, two hundred just pay ex- 
penses, one hundred return a small 
profit, and fewer less a substantial gain. 
Of these 1,000 books 650 are forgotten 
by the end of the first year, 150 more at 
the end of three years and only fifty sur- 
vive seven years' publicity. Out of the 
50,000 publications in the seventeenth 

52 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

century, hardly more than fifty-nine 
have a great reputation and are reprint- 
ed. Of the 50,000 in the eighteenth cen- 
tury not more than sixty remain with 
honor. Men have v^ritten books during 
thousands of years and yet hardly five 
hundred v^riters have survived the rav- 
ages of time. Do not these figures lead 
us to wonder at the endurance of the 
Word of God. Well may we say with 
Bishop Jewell: "Cities fall, kingdoms 
come to nothing, empires fade as smoke. 
Where is Numa, Minos, Lycurgus? 
Where are their books? And what is 
become of their laws ? But that ihis book 
no tyrant should have been able to con- 
sume, no tradition to choke, no heretic 
maliciously to corrupt; that it should 
stand unto this day, amid the wreck of 
all that is human without the alteration 
of one single sentence so as to change 
the doctrine taught therein, surely this 
is a very singular Providence, claiming 
our attention in a most remarkable 
manner." And when we contemplate 

53 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

on the glorious achievements of the last 
century in the translation and circula- 
tion of the Scriptures, it cannot but fill 
our hearts with thankfulness to Al- 
mighty God. The Christian Church, 
like a dove of peace, has been carrying 
the everlasting gospel of every nation 
and people and tongue. To the inhabit- 
ants of the old lands of Palestine and 
Egypt and according to time, even to 
the Esquimaux and Greenlander within 
the Arctic circle. Never could it be 
more truly said than at the present time, 
''We do hear them speak in our tongues 
wherein we were born, the wonderful 
works of God.'' 

4. The Progress of Missions. 

If there has been any progress made 
in the mission fields it is due to the fact 
that the incentive of missions is the 
m^essage of the Bible. At a recent gather- 
ing of missions at Shanghai, China, the 
first one hundred years of Protestant 
missionary effort was celebrated, and at 

54 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

that gathering Dr. Griffith John, who 
had spent fifty years in China, showed 
some results from the missionary cam- 
paign in the following notable contrast: 
In 1807 there was not a single Chinese 
Protestant Christian, but in 1907, there 
were more than 160,000 church mem- 
bers, representing a Christian commun- 
ity of about half a million souls, in every 
province of the Empire. In 1807, Mor- 
rison was the only Protestant mission- 
ary, and in 1907, more than 3,800 for- 
eign missionaries, including 1,146 wives. 
These are to be found in every provinc- 
ial capital and in most of the large cities. 
In 1807 there were no native helpers and 
in 1907 there were 10,000 Chinese 
preachers, teachers, colporters, etc. In 
1807 there was no part of the Bible in 
print and in 1907 there were more than 
three million copies of the Scriptures, in 
whole or in part, sold in China, that 
year. In 1807 China was closed against 
the Gospel and in 1907 we find the whole 

55 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

of China open to missionary work, 
eager for new light, new knowledge and 
new life. 

There has also been remarkable pro- 
gress made in the Syria mission during 
the past fifty years. The American 
Bible Society states that in 1857 there 
were all told, only seventy-five native 
church members in four churches, and 
the admissions that year were only 
eleven. In 1907 there were thirty-four 
organized churches with 2,819 mem- 
bers, of whom 151 were admitted dur- 
ing the year. None of the Presbyteries 
existed twenty years ago, but now they 
are the real center of evangelical church 
life. In 1857, there were nine stations 
with sixteen preaching places within 
the bounds of the Syria Mission and in 
1907 there were ninety-four preaching 
places. The thirty schools of 1857 with 
1,030 pupils, have grown in 1907 into 
105 schools with 5,115 pupils, and these 
take no account of the college with its 
850 students that grew naturally out of 

56 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

the mission work. In 1857 the American 
Bible Society, through the Mission 
Press, printed only 2,569,000 pages, 
while in 1907 the issues were 14,415,000, 
and this was an off year as compared 
with the record issue of 1905, which was 
49,275,000 pages. 

The same remarkable missionary pro- 
gress has been made also in the Philip- 
pine Islands and it would seem as 
though every Christian American would 
be interested in the missions among the 
Filipinos. Eight years ago there was 
not a dollar invested in the Philippines 
by any Protestant missionary society 
and today nearly $500,000 is held by 
various American Boards. More than 
thirty thousand Filipinos have already 
confessed faith in Jesus Christ. There 
are 1,000 students in the mission 
schools. As for the Sacred Word, the 
the American Bible Society has dis- 
tributed over 700,000 portions of the 
Scriptures, a large number of which was 
the complete Bible. This is certainly re- 

57 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

markable progress when one considers 
the persecution to which the converts 
are exposed when they accept the Chris- 
tion religion. A beautiful incident is re- 
lated by Mr. Fred Jansen, a missionary 
at Ceba, of a young man by the name of 
Ricardo Alunco, whose father was a 
Spaniard and mother a Filipino, and 
who was one of their first converts. He 
was brilliantly educated, a graduate of 
San Carlos University at Manilla and 
holding a good position under the gov- 
ernment at Ceba at the time of our ar- 
rival. He soon became a great Bible 
student and a great helper in open air 
preaching, but he had a hard time at 
home. His old widowed mother whose 
only child he was, lamented the fact 
that she should have lived to see the day 
when her precious son had joined the 
heretics and she sought in every conceiv- 
able way to have him return to the 
mother church, but in vain. She then 
set his young wife against him also, and 

58 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

after using all the gentle persuasions 
they could think of, they thouglit harsh- 
er methods might possibly bring him 
back to the fold. They left him, the 
mother taking the younger son, a babe 
of two months, and leaving with him 
the other son. So he lived for some time 
with his elder child, a boy of eighteen 
months, getting along as best he could. 
But the mother did not cease her efforts 
to get him away from the heretics. She 
went finally to a priest, who is supposed 
to know more than anybody else how to 
reclaim heretics and he gave this advice. 
Said he: "You say that he is always 
reading a book. Well, that book is un- 
doubtedly the Bible. It is an infernal 
book, and unless you get it away from 
him and destroy it to the very last page, 
you can never hope to see him change 
his mind. Get hold of it and burn it.'' 
She promised to do so and the very next 
day she sought and found entrance into 
the house while her son was away and 
hunted until she found the Bible. She 

59 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

was anxious to get it quickly destroyed, 
but something prompted her to stop and 
reflect. She said to herself: ''I wonder 
what there is in this Book that has 
changed my boy so wonderfully, for 
there is no use talking, he is a changed 
man, and whereas he was once §o arrog- 
ant, hard and impatient with us at home 
that it was very difficult to please him at 
times and he made us all so wretched; 
but since he has been reading this book 
he has been so kind, so affectionate and 
so patient and when we abused him for 
not wanting to return to the fold he did 
not say an unkind word. How I wish 
that he might be the same without this 
book. I think before I destroy it, I will 
just sit down and see what it is that 
might have changed him." She sat down 
and commenced to read some place in 
the New Testament. What she read ev- 
idently interested her greatly. Tears 
were soon rolling down her cheeks and 
so engrossed was she in reading that she 
kept on and on and never heard her son 

60 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

come in. He stood and looked at her in 
amazement, but as she did not notice 
him he went quietly out into the kitchen 
to await developments. After a while 
he saw his mother shut the Bible, clasp 
it to her breast and then with broken 
voice exclaimed: ''O God, I never knew 
you loved me: I never had anybody tell 
me and it is what I have longed for all 
my life. How I want to know that you 
will accept me just as I am. Do show 
me the way for I am only a poor ignor- 
ant old woman,but I want You more than 
all that is in the world. Tell me how to 
come, show me the way. Her prayer 
was effective, the dear Lord received 
her then and there as she was and from 
that day she was a changed woman by 
the grace of God. 

She became a devout member of the 
church, abundant in good works. Her 
husband had left her some property in 
Ceba, but like all native women who 
marry white men, she was looked down 
upon by him and at his death he left his 

61 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

property in charge of his brother, who 
could do as he pleased with it if she did 
not please him. The fact of her becom- 
ing a Protestant displeased him very 
much and he took the opportunity glad- 
ly to turn her out into the street, taking 
all the property away from her for him- 
self. Although of gentle breeding, 
never having had to turn her hand to do 
anything in her life, she commenced to 
wash for a living. At this time we were 
finding it impossible to get a place in 
which to worship with the exception of 
our own house which proved entirely 
inadequate, and so, though all poor, we 
decided that we must somehow or other 
try to build a humble little church where 
we could worship together. Two weeks 
were set aside for self sacrifice and 
prayer and the second Sunday after, we 
all brought our offerings. The offerings 
were great according to the condition of 
the people so that as we looked at it we 
knew that they had made sacrifices of 
actual necessities of life not to speak of 

62 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

luxuries, because they had none, and we 
wondered how they had Hved the two 
weeks and how they would be able to 
live some time after. It was, however, 
the happiest day we had ever experi- 
enced. Ricardo's mother came and 
brought one month's salary. We feared 
that in her enthusiasm and joy she was 
giving more than she ought and calling 
her to one side after the service we said 
to her: "Mother, we don't think that 
you ought to give quite so much. We 
do not believe that Jesus wants you to. 
How are you going to live the month to 
come if you give your whole salary 
away?" She said she had enough rice to 
live on economically through the month 
and that she always had too much any- 
way and that it was not good for old 
people to eat so much in a hot climate. 
She weighs about seventy-five pounds 
and I told her that while she might 
think she ate too much, certainly other 
people would not think so and begged 
her to take a little of the money to buy 

63 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

some meat and eggs to eat with her rice 
in order to keep up strength. "Oh no," 
she said. "Please do not ask me to; 
Why, when I think we are going to 
build a house to the glory of God I am 
so happy I feel full clear up to here" 
(pointing to her throat) ; "how then 
could I swallow anyway?" So we let 
her have her own way and God evident- 
ly made up to her for her loving sacri- 
fice. How marvelously did the Word 
of God bring about an accepted change 
in this woman's life and this is but one 
illustration of the workings of the Bible 
in the Progress of Missions. 

Surely the hope of all nations and 
peoples and tongues is the Bible, for 
wherever it has been planted it has 
brought Light and Liberty and Love 
and has healed the nation of her great- 
est sores and ridded them of their great- 
est evils. Well indeed did Jesus say, 
''The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be- 
cause He hath anointed me to preach 
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me 

64 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

to heal the broken hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, the recover-, 
ing of sight to the blind and to set at lib- 
erty them that are bruised." Luke 4. 18. 
And because this is the mission of Christ 
through the message of the Word, the 
heart of the Christian greatly rejoices 
whenever the Bible is planted in a new 
field. I was reading a very interesting 
article recently telling of the fact that 
even the natives of the South Sea Isl- 
ands were to have the Bijple in their na- 
tive tongue. ''A little craft loaded with a 
cargo of Bibles, hymnals and tracts, the 
first ever published in the tongue of the 
natives of the Gilbert Islands, left Hono- 
lulu, December 9th for the South Seas. 
Hiram Bingham the second, the son of 
the pioneer American missionary, to the 
Gilbert Kanakas, known as one of the 
truest and best of men, after a long life 
of devotion to the Islands of the South 
Sea, came to the United States recently 
to correct the proofs of his Gilbertese 
Bible and died suddenly before that task 

65 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

was completed; and now this ship bear- 
ing his name is carrying the Bibles he 
translated to the people for whom he 
wrought and loved so well. And these 
Bibles and the living teachers and 
preachers that shall interpret them will 
continue his work through the genera- 
tions, in bringing souls into the King- 
dom of God. What a new inspiration 
to the foreign missionary work this 
shipload of Bibles in the native tongue 
will be and thus the sowing of the seed 
goes on and the earth is growing white 
with the harvest. 

A very remarkable thing happened in 
Russia recently. Baron Stackelberg of 
St. Petersburg writes that of late an or- 
der has been issued by the chief of the 
military cadet schools in Russia/' that 
every boy during the whole seven or 
eight years of his school life should read 
his New Testament daily," This chief 
is our Emperor's uncle. Grand Duke 
Constantine. His mother a blind old 
lady, was a friend of the late Dr. Bae- 

66 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

deker, who visited the palace every time 
he was in St. Petersburg. One of her 
daughters a princess of Wurtemburg, 
attends regularly the German Evange- 
lical meetings in town here during her 
visit at her mother's home. The other 
daughter the Queen of Greece loves the 
gospel. Our dear Emperor, a man of 
the kindest, softest heart, is to us Chris- 
tians and imperialists, the anointed by 
the Lord. If we had only sufficient love 
we could see a great deal of light and 
good where others find reasons to be- 
come murderers. In November last we 
received an edition of the Russian Bible 
and already about 15,000 have been dis- 
posed of. I could continue to enumer- 
ate rays of light of Russian priests who 
help our colporters sell the Holy Scrip- 
tures by word in the church and by ex- 
ample; of military officers who recom- 
mend their men to buy the Gospel or 
Testaments. Oh, we have reasons 
enough to praise our Heavenly Father 
and to glory that the Crucified Son is the 

67 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Light also in this dark country of ours." 
Thus we see that the Progress of Mis- 
sions the world over is another grand 
testimony to the Popularity of the Bible. 

Thus far we have attested the Popu- 
larity of the Bible from the place it oc- 
cupies in the World of Literature, from 
the place it occupies in the minds of the 
great men of the world as well as the 
common people, from the several as- 
pects of its Circulation and from the 
view-point of the progress of Missions 
and these all tell us that the Bible is the 
most popular book in the world. 

And why is it so popular? because it 
is inspired of God? not exactly, but be- 
cause "IT MEETS THE SUPREME 
NEED OF THE HUMAN HEART." 
The hearts of men and women are hun- 
gry for a knowledge of God. They are 
tossed about on the restless sea of hu- 
manity and long for peace. They do not 
care much for your theology and cer- 
tainly less for your speculations, but 
they do respond to that plain practical 

68 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

teaching of God's Word which reveals 
Jesus Christ. It is Dr. Jacob Chamber- 
lain the missionary to India, who tells of 
being out on a preaching tour in that 
country with a fellow missionary and on 
one occasion, as they were returning to 
their tent, they saw an old gray-haired 
Brahmin by the side of a shrine, very 
faithfully going through his devotions 
to his heathen gods. They stood and 
watched him for some time and they no- 
ticed that very slowly he counted his 
beads and muttered his prayers while 
all the time his eyes were fixed on the 
shrine. Every once in a while he would 
cast himself on the ground, and then 
raising himself again, he would slide a 
bead on his rosary and very slow and 
with great reverence go round a tree 
near which he was standing. After they 
had watched him for some time, they 
stepped up to him and asked him what 
he was seeking by his prayers and wor- 
ship, to which the old man replied: "Oh 
sirs, I am seeking to get rid of my bur- 

69 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

den of sin. All my life I have been seek- 
ing it but each effort that I make is as 
unsuccessful as the one before; the bur- 
den is just the same. All my pilgrim- 
ages, prayers and penances for the past 
sixty years have been in vain. Alas, I 
know not how my desire can be accom- 
plished." And then upon their inquiry, 
he told them the story of his life, of how 
early in life he had been sorely troubled 
about his sin, how that his parents who 
were very wealthy, had died when he 
was but seventeen years of age and how 
they had left him all their wealth. Of 
how he had consulted the priests in or- 
der that he might have relief from his 
sin and who told him that if he would 
give all his property to endow a temple 
his burden would be lifted. And thus he 
gave all his property, but still the bur- 
den was not removed, his mind was not 
at peace. 

Then he went to the priests again and 
this time they told him that if he would 
make a long pilgrimage on foot, which 

70 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

he did, and spent two years there in the 
worship of the temple. After that he 
spent two years more bathing in the riv- 
er Ganges ; but, said he, ''the Ganges 
washed the foulness from my body, but 
not from my soul, for still the burden is 
uneased." After this he had walked two 
thousand miles begging his food all the 
way and to and from other holy places, 
how his whole life had been spent in pil- 
grimages and penances and in desert 
wanderings, living on roots, nuts and 
jungle fruits and how he had remained 
for years at a time in the vain search for 
relief from his burden of sin. "And now, 
sirs," said he, "my life is almost gone, 
my hair is thin and white, my eyes are 
dim, my teeth are gone, my cheeks are 
sunken and my body is wasted. I am an 
old, old man and yet sirs, the burden of 
my sins is just as heavy as when I was a 
young man. Oh, sirs, does your Vedas, 
(referring to the Christian Bible) tell 
you how I can get rid of my burden of 
sin and be at peace?" And then and 

71 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

there in loving sympathy, they told him 
of the great burden-bearer, Jesus Christ 
and of His Atonement for sin and how 
Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye that 
are weary and heavy laden and I will 
give you rest/' With great eagerness 
the old man listened and then he em- 
braced the Saviour from sin and his life 
long burden was lifted. 

What a comforting experience this 
poor heathen man received from the Bi- 
ble, as compared with men we know, of 
men who had fame and intellect and for- 
tune, but who ended their lives in de- 
spair and bitter remorse. The name of 
Socrates has come down through twen- 
ty-three centuries of time as one of the 
greatest men the world has ever seen, 
and yet this great man, out of a heart of 
despair and remorse, was heard to say: 
"A wailing babe came I into the world; 
in trouble and sorrow have I passed 
through it; and now I go I know not 
whither; Oh, Cause of all causes, have 
pity on me." Socrates with all his learn- 

72 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

ing and philosophy, could not ease the 
ravings of his own soul. 

Stephen Grellet, the French Quaker, 
who ministered to Tom Paine in his last 
days, tells of how he found the unhappy 
man in most destitute circumstances, 
neglected and forsaken by his friends 
and acquaintances with no one to care 
for him, alone, friendless, hopeless, an 
abject picture of misery and mental deg- 
radation. He provided Paine with a 
nurse and supplied him with the neces- 
saries of life. On one occasion three of 
Paine's friends called to see him and one 
of them said: "Tom Paine, it is said you 
are turning a Christian, but we hope you 
will die as you have lived;" and then 
went away. After they had gone, 
Paine looked at his nurse, Mary Roscoe 
and said, "You see what miserable com- 
forters they are.'' Once he asked her if 
she had ever read any of his writings 
and on being told that she had, he in- 
quired as to what she thought of them, 
adding, "from such a one as you I ex- 

73 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

pect a correct answer." She told him 
that she had commenced reading the 
Age of Reason, but it had so distressed 
her that she threw it in the fire. "I wish 
all had done as you." replied Paine; "for 
if the devil has ever had any agency in 
any book, he has had it in my writing 
that book." Miss Roscoe stated that 
she repeatedly heard him uttering the 
language, ''O Lord, Lord, God," or 
''Lord Jesus, have mercy on me." The 
infidelity of Tom Paine, failed to give 
him peace in his time of greatest need. 
And so we find that the great men who 
have invented their own religious beliefs 
and creeds, have had nought on which 
to lean, in the days of adversity and in 
the time of need. It is not so withtheone 
who depends upon the Bible and not un- 
til the human heart no longer aches with 
sorrow, not until the time comes when 
there remains no more a prodigal to re- 
turn to the Father's house, not until the 
time comes when the despairing and 
desolate call no more for help, until 

74 



THE BIBLE. IS IT POPULAR? 

tears cease to flow, until love has no 
task to perform, until the cup of cold 
water is no longer needed to refresh the 
parched wanderer on the pathway of 
life; not until then will the Bible lose its 
power and beauty and cease to be en- 
throned in the heart of man. How bet- 
ter can we close this chapter than with 
the words of Morris, 

Thou truest friend man ever knew, 
Thy constancy Tve tried; 

When all were false, I found thee true 
My counsellor and guide. 

The mines of earth no treasure give 
That could this volume buy; 

In teaching me the way to live, 
It taught me how to die. 



75 



CHAPTER II. 

The Bible. The Relation of the Old and 
New Testaments. 

In treating this subject ''The Relation 
of the Old and New Testaments'' I can- 
not but feel that the Old Testament is 
not receiving its proper place in Bible 
teaching and preaching today. We 
have a tendency today to set the Old 
Testament in the background as a re- 
jected and obsolete book, when it is of as 
equal importance as is the New Testa- 
ment. Now let me put the subject in the 
form of a question: What is the relation 
of the Old and New Testaments to each 
other? 

In the first place, the Old Testament 
is the New Testament enfolded, while 
the New Testament is the Old Testa- 
ment unfolded. 

Again, the Old Testament is the foun- 

7b 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

dation of the New. There could be no 
New Testament without the Old. 

Yet again, the Old Testament is to 
the New what the acorn is to the oak. 
The acorn is the root, while the oak is 
the tree. Likewise the Old Testament 
is the root of Christianity and the New 
Testament is the tree, the growth and 
development out of the root. (Dr. W. R. 
Evans). And yet again, the two Testa- 
ments are two volumes of one book, 
each would not be complete without the 
other. 

The Jew tells us that he wants only 
the Old Testament, while the higher 
critic says that he wants only the New. 
But I want to say to you that the motto 
and safeguard of the American Repub- 
lic is the motto and safeguard of God's 
Eternal Word. "United we stand, divid- 
ed we fall." Less than half a century 
ago men rose up in arms and fought and 
bled and died to preserve the unity of 
the nation and from that day of blood- 
shed and victory to this, we have been 

77 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

teaching our children and our children's 
children, to honor the nation and to 
strive to keep its unity. Likewise, all 
down the history of the ages, men and 
women of every nation and kindred and 
tongue have fought and bled and died, 
to hold together the unity and the prin- 
ciples of God's Word and today while 
the nation is at peace, the enemy is try- 
ing hard to tear asunder the Word of God 
and to rob it of its unity. Oh, that ev- 
er}^ Christian and every lover of the Bi- 
ble might rise together and preserve it 
from the destruction of the enemy. 

Objections to the Old Testament. 

Now not infrequently I find people 
who say to me, ''why Mr. Sharman, I 
must confess that I do not like the Old 
Testament and really I do not like to 
hear you preach from it at all." They 
say there are so many stories in the Old 
Testament that seem only like fairy 
tales, and because of this they do not like 
the Old Testament at all. Furthermore 

78 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

they say, for instance, "we read about 
the flood and about the whale swallow- 
ing Jonah and about Lot's wife being 
turned into a pillar of salt and really I 
do not believe that any such thing could 
have happened." Of course we cannot 
argue about these things now, but I will 
try and touch on some of them in our 
next talk under the Inspiration of the 
Bible. Let it be sufficient for the pres- 
ent to say that Jesus believed them to be 
real historical events when He referred 
to them and used them to illustrate the 
truths he was teaching. For instance, 
you remember when Christ was teaching 
to the disciples a lesson concerning his 
own second coming into the world and, 
wishing to impress the truth upon their 
hearts and minds, He said, "Remember 
Lot's wife." Luke 17.32; thus setting 
His infallibility to the accuracy of this 
historical event. And in connection 
with the same truth, teaching the im- 
portance of readiness at His second 
coming. He said, "And as it was in the 

79 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

days of Noah so shall it be in tlie days of 
the Son of Man, they did eat, they 
drank, they married wives, they were 
given in marriage until the day that 
Noah entered into the ark, and the flood 
came and destroyed them all." Luke 17: 
26.27; And again, in answer to the 
Pharisees who asked Jesus a sign of his 
authority, he answered, "For as Jonah 
was three days and three nights in the 
whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be 
three days and three nights in the heart 
of the earth." The men of Nineveh 
shall rise up in judgment with this gen- 
eration and shall condemn it; because 
they repented at the preaching of Jonah 
and behold a greater than Jonali is here" 
Matt; 12. 40-41 ; Thus we see that Jes- 
us Christ set his seal of authority to the 
accuracy of these historical events when 
he used them to illustrate his own teach- 
ings and if Jesus believed them and ac- 
cepted them as truth, why should not 
you and I. 

Another common excuse for the re- 

80 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

jection of the Old Testament Scriptures 
is, ''I don't like the Old Testament be- 
cause it contains so many stories which 
are so obscene and so impure." I grant 
it there are many things recorded in the 
Old Testament which seem to be ob- 
scene and which could not be very well 
read to a mixed audience but after all 
they are not so obscene as they at first 
appear to be. 

Dr. Torrey in his little book on Bible 
Difficulties answers this objection to the 
Old Testament as follows. To speak 
of sin even the vilest form of sin, 
in the plainest terms in order to 
expose its loathsomeness and to pic- 
ture man as he really is, is not ob- 
scenity but purity in its highest forms. 
The obscenity of a story depends upon 
the purpose for which the story is told, 
if the story is told for the purpose of 
making a jest of sin, or to excuse sin, it 
is of course obscene, but if told to make 
men hate sin, or to show the hideous- 
ness of sin, or to show man his need of 

81 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

redemption it is morally wholesome. 
Now this is the way in which sin is pic- 
tured in the Bible. It is true some things 
are described in the plainest language, 
but everything is so told as to make one 
revolt and recoil from the horrid and 
disgusting sins described. 

Again, they are thus recorded in the 
Old Testament as a safeguard to others, 
lest they too should fall into the same 
evil practices, and many a man is thank- 
ing God today that he has been benefit- 
ted by the folly of other people. 

And then does not the so-called ob- 
scene stories teach to us the majesty of 
the Grace of God. That although the 
heirs of salvation, such men as Noah 
and Abraham and Jacob and David, 
although these men fell into sm and did 
the terrible things ascribed to them in 
Scripture, yet God did not take away 
from them the Covenant of Promise, 
but they found mercy at His hands 
through His Grace. Ah, the best and 
greatest of us are only sinners and not a 

82 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

single one of us have any claim on the 
salvation of God, but in His Infinite 
mercy He gives it to us gratis, without 
money and without price. Thanks be 
unto God for His abundant Grace. 

Identity of Theme. 

In speaking of the Relation of the Old 
and New Testaments to each other, one 
cannot fail to notice that both Testa- 
ments possess identity of theme or sub- 
ject matter. 

What is the theme of the Bible any- 
way? Negatively speaking, it is not a 
history of the world, neither is it a his- 
tory of God, nor yet is it a text book on 
science as some seem to suppose, but 
the great central theme of God's Word 
is the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, 
and in both the Old and New Testa- 
ments we see this identity of theme. In 
the Old Testament we have Jesus 
Christ foretold or prefigured, while in 
the New we have Jesus Christ fully re- 
vealed. If Christ were not coming, the 

83 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Old Testament would not have been 
written and if Christ had not come the 
New Testament could not have been 
written. 

It was only yesterday in the prepara- 
tion of this message that I counted not 
less than sixty-five prophecies concern- 
ing Jesus Christ which have their direct 
fulfillment in the New Testament and 
what about the host that I could not 
count. 

How very impressive it is that all the 
characteristics of the life and work of 
Jesus which we read of in the New Tes- 
tament gospels, were first prefigured in 
the Old Testament. All the peculiar 
characteristics of His life, His birth and 
manner of living, His holiness, His be- 
ing hated of His brethren. His death, 
even the words which He spake while 
upon the Cross, His burial and His res- 
urrection, all these things I say, were 
prefigured in the Old Testament before 
they were revealed in Him. And while 
we are talking of the prophecies con- 

84 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

cerning Jesus Christ, let me call your at- 
tention to one line of prophecy which is 
very precious to myself and that is ''the 
Prophetic Historical Record of Jesus 
Christ." You remember that no sooner 
did man fall into sin, that even before 
he is expelled from the Paradise of God, 
God gave to Adam and to us in him, the 
promise of Redemption in the jjerson of 
His own Son. Do you remember what 
that promise was? ''the seed of the wo- 
man shall bruise the serpent's head'' 
Genesis 3. 15. I ask you today to trace 
the seed of the woman and the promise 
of Redemption to its final fulfillment. At 
a later period of time, speaking to Noah 
of the promised Redeemer, God said to 
him, that the Redeemer shall come of 
the line of Shem. Giving the covenant 
of promise to Abram, who was the tenth 
in the line of Shem, God said, "In thee 
and in thy seed shall all the nations of 
the earth be blessed." Handing the 
Promise down to the next generation to 
Isaac, God gives the same covenant of 

85 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

promise to him. Then God hands it 
down to Jacob of the seed of Isaac and 
says to Jacob, the promised Redeemer 
shall be of the tribe of Judah and then at 
a later period of time to Moses God said, 
He shall come of the house of David, and 
to Micah, He shall be born in Bethlehem 
of Judea, and to Isaiah, He shall be born 
of a pure virgin. As I study this pro- 
phetic history of Christ and see it have 
its literal fulfillment, exactly as it was 
predicted, I bow before the feet of the 
great God and I thank Him with all my 
heart for the history of His Son, when I 
think that that great Personage whose 
history is so prophetically recorded, is 
the one who died on Calvary's Cross, my 
Saviour and my Redeemer. 

I sometimes wonder what would be 
the condition of the mind of man if he 
knew no sweeter story than Paradise 
Lost, but I thank God with all my heart 
that although John Milton did write 
Paradise Lost, he had sufficient acquain- 
tance with God and with His Word to 

8b 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

write the brighter side of the story, and 
thus kindle brighter hope and bring 
greater blessing to the hearts of men, by 
giving to the world Paradise Regained. 
Dr. Wayland Hoyt, gives a striking il- 
lustration which forcefully illustrates 
the important position which Christ 
holds throughout the Scriptures, he 
says, "I was sitting one summer after- 
noon on the veranda of the hotel in Ta- 
coma, in the state of Washington. There 
was scarcely a trace of mist in all the 
sky. A wide prospect was before me, a 
portion of the city of Tacoma, hills, 
plains, various verdure, the clear waters 
of the Tacoma bay merging into the 
deep waters of the Puget Sound, and 
these reaching onward and outward in- 
to the Pacific. But there was one object 
in that prospect which perpetually drew 
my vision, much as I might seek to look 
otherwhere. I could not help gazing 
fascinated on that one masterfulness. 
That dominated everything. That 
dwarfed the city, the plain, the hills, the 

87 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

verdure, the fair waters. It was Mount 
Ranier, or Mount Tacoma, as it is vari- 
ously called. It towered there against 
the blue of heaven, fourteen thousand 
four hundred and forty feet, and all its 
altitude, was dazzling with the sheen of 
the eternal snows. So rises in the 
world's vision the Christ. He is the fact 
in history. He is no surmise, invention, 
mystic." As even Theodore Parker so 
well said, *'It would take a Newton to 
forge a Newton; it would take a Jesus to 
fabricate a Jesus.'' The sufficient and 
and efficient reason for me for clinging 
to the old Book is this Jesus Christ. 

Christ and the Old Testament. 

When I hear people condemn the 
teachings of the Old Testament, and I 
think of Jesus Christ around whom the 
whole Word of God centers itself, I ap- 
peal to Him as the great and infallible 
teacher, sent from God, the One who 
spake as never man spake and I ask 
Him for His testimony concerning the 

88 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

accuracy of the Old Testament Scrip- 
tures and I hear fall from His Divine 
lips such words as these, ''Search the 
scriptures for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life, and they are they which tes- 
tify of me" John. 5.39. If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets, they will not 
be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead. Luke 16. 31. And then I study the 
messages of Jesus as recorded in the 
Gospels and I find Jesus constantly used 
the Old Testament Scriptures, as a back 
ground of appeal in teaching the people 
of His day the truths concerning Him- 
self and the purpose of His mission to 
the world. Amid the stress of His temp- 
tation, Christ vanquished Satan by 
texts from the Deuteronomy of those 
scriptures. To the Sadducees, who 
quibbled about the woman who had 
been married seven times, and also 
about the resurrection, Jesus replied 
''Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures. 
Have ye not read that which was spok- 
en unto you by God ?" To the young 

89 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

man who came asking what good thing 
he should do to inherit eternal life, 
Christ quoted the commandments, as 
written in Exodus, Deuteronomy and 
Leviticus. In fact there is scarcely a 
book in the entire range of these Old 
Testament Scripture from which Christ 
does not reverently quote and among 
His last words upon the cross are quota- 
tions from the Old Testament. Surely 
in this, Christ regarded the Old Testa- 
ment Scriptures as authentic and trust- 
worthy, and to quote from Prof. George 
Adam Smith, "The Bible of the Jews in 
our Lord's time was practically our Old 
Testament; for us its supreme sanction 
is that which is derived from Christ 
Himself; what was indispensable to the 
Redeemer must always be indispensable 
to the redeemed. 

The Gospel in the Old Testament. 

But then the question is sometimes 
asked, did you ever know a soul to be 
converted through reading the Old Tes- 

90 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

tament? I answer you, yes. There is 
fully as much of the Gospel of Life re- 
corded in the Old Testament as there is 
in the New. Who could fail to see the 
Gospel of Grace prefigured in the types 
and symbols of the Old Testament. 
Take for instance, the Tabernacle in the 
wilderness alone, which God command- 
ed Moses to build, and every detail sets 
forth the Gospel of Grace in type. I 
have just been studying the tabernacle 
in the wilderness and was marvellous- 
ly amazed to see how beautifiilly it pre- 
figures our Redemption in Jesus Christ. 
Just notice if you will, even the arrange- 
ment of the furniture in the different di- 
visions of the tabernacle. In the inner 
court we see first the brazen altar, at a 
little distance behind that stands the la- 
ver, entering into the Holy Place and ar- 
ranged horizontally we see on the left 
hand side of the Holy Place the golden 
candle stick, and on the right hand side 
the table of shew bread, behind them, 
just before we enter the Most Holy 

91 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Place, stands the golden altar of incense 
and passing inside, within the veil, 
stands the ark of the covenant, on top of 
v^hich is the mercy seat. I ask you to 
stand and glance at the arrangement of 
these six pieces of furniture and what 
confronts our gaze? There before us is 
outlined the figure of a Cross. It re- 
minds us of the Cross of Christ upon 
which w^as paid the penalty of sin and 
death and upon which was fulfilled the 
works of the law in Christ and upon 
which was given to the world "Redemp- 
tion by Grace." Surely this arrange- 
inent was no accident on the part of the 
Father who ordered all things after the 
pattern of things in Heaven. Hebrews 

8.5. 

And then study if you will the typical 
meaning of these individual pieces of 
furniture. First the Brazen Altar; 
which was for the purpose of sacrificing 
a substitute in the place of the one who 
had sinned. This is a type of, and re- 
minds us of Christ who was sacrificed 

92 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

Upon the Altar of Calvary, as the substi- 
tute for the sin of the world. Secondly, 
the Laver, which was for the purpose of 
the washing of the priests after the sub- 
stitute had been slain and offered. This 
is a type of Christ who is not only our 
substitute for sins, but the One who 
cleanses us from all sin and all impurity. 
Thirdly, the Golden candlestick, 
which was to give light to the priests in 
the discharge of their duties. This is a 
type of Jesus Christ, who is the light of 
the world and who enlighteneth every 
one who cometh unto Him. Fourthly, 
the Table of Shew-bread, which was to 
be the food of the priests. This is a type 
of Christ, the Bread of Life, the one up- 
on whom we feed and who sustains us 
by His Grace. Fifthly, the Golden Al- 
tar of Incense, upon which a fire burned 
and into which the priests cast incense, 
the smoke of which ascended before the 
presence of the Lord as a sweet smelling 
fragrance. This is a type of Jesus Christ, 
through whom, and in whose name the 

93 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

prayers of God's believing children as- 
cend unto the Father, as a sweet smell- 
ing savor. 

Sixthly, the Ark of the Covenant, in 
which was kept the Law of God. This is 
the type of Christ, who alone in Him- 
self kept the Law of God, and 
who was thus able to deliver His Own 
from its curse. And Seventhly, the Mer- 
cy seat, upon which was sprinkled the 
blood of the sacrifice and from which 
ascended the petitions of the high priest 
on behalf of those who had sinned. This 
is a type of Jesus Christ our Advocate 
and Propitiation, who ever stands in the 
presence of the Father presenting the 
blood, and who ever liveth to intercede 
on behalf of the soul that trusteth in 
Him, and whose presence brings forth 
from the Father the wonderful Gospel 
of Grace, "When I see the blood I will 
pass over." Surely in the typology of 
the tabernacle in the wilderness, we can- 
not fail to recognize the Gospel of Life 
as presented in the Old Testament. And 

94 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

then again, the Gospel is presented not 
alone in type and symbol, but also in the 
very plainest of terms. 

Dr. W. H. Thompson in his book 
"Christ and the Old Testament" very 
beautifully speaks of the Gospel in the 
Old Testament, thus; ''Is not only the 
fact, but the doctrine of the Cross, that 
the blood of the Christ would be shed for 
the remission of sins, foretold in the Old 
Testament? For even all the arguments 
which have preceded would fall short of 
complete demonstration if the Atone- 
ment be left out. Because we ask, why 
has the world received the Messiah of 
the Jews? Is it because the iLuropean 
mind could not conceive the thought of 
the coming king for itself, and had to 
take from the Jews? Or was it because 
the world found in the rejected One of 
the Jews a greater teacher of virtue and 
a higher moralist than the European 
race could produce ? Every candid man 
must admit that, as a historical fact, it 
was not so, but rather the preaching of 

95 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

the Atoning Son of God in Jesus, which 
constituted the glad tidings. It was a 
message of reconciliation with the Fa- 
ther by the Cross which converted the 
nations, and hence, unless this be the 
word of Old Testament Prophecy also, 
then its suffering and dying Messiah is 
not Jesus. Every passage however, 
which we have cited which speaks of the 
Sufferer also speaks of the reasons and 
the results of the sufferings. The marred 
form and visage is joined with the blood 
of sprinkling. We esteemed Him not, 
^'but He was wounded for our transgres- 
sions. He was bruised for our iniquities; 
the chastisement of our peace was upon 
Him and with his stripes we are healed. 
All we like sheep have gone astray; we 
have turned every one to his own way; 
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniqui- 
ty of us all. For the transgressions of 
my people was he stricken. When thou 
shalt make his soul an offering for sin, 
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in 
his hand. By His knowledge shall my 

96 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

righteous servant justify many, for He 
shall bear their iniquities. Because He 
hath poured out his soul unto death and 
He was numbered with the transgres- 
sors and He bare the sin of many and 
made intercession for the transgress- 
ors." 

By comparing the teachings of Jesus^ 
with this message of the Old Testa- 
ment, I say, "Jesus never preached a 
plainer or more simple Gospel." We 
sometimes love to sing that beautiful 
song ''The Lost Chord." 

Seated one day at the organ, 

I was weary and ill at ease, 
And my fingers wandered idly 

Over the noisy keys: 
I knew not what I was playing 

Or what I was dreaming then, 
But I struck one chord of music, 

Like the sound of a great Amen. 

It flooded the crimson twilight. 

Like the close of an Angel's Psalm^ 

97 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

And it lay on my fevered spirit, 
With a touch of Infinite calm, 

It quieted pain and sorrow. 

Like love overcoming strife, 

It seemed the harmonious echo, 
From our discordant life. 

It linked all perplexed meanings, 

Into one perfect peace, 
And trembled away into silence. 

As if it were lothe to cease; 
I have sought, but I seek it vainly, 

That one lost chord divine. 
Which camefrom the soul of theorgan 

And entered into mine. 

It may be that death's bright angel. 

Will speak in that chord again. 
It may be that only in Heaven 

I shall hear that grand Amen, 
It may be that death's bright angel. 

Will speak in that chord again. 
It may be that only in Heaven, 

I shall hear that grand Amen. 

98 



RELATION OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 

But beautiful as may be the song of 
*'The Lost Chord" there is one song 
that is much sweeter to me. Seated one 
Sabbath morning on the veranda of a 
friend's house, I was heavily grieved in 
spirit, and laboring earnestly beneath a 
consciousness of sin and seeking to be 
relieved of my burden, anxiously wond- 
ering how? With God's Divine Book 
open on my knees, my eyes lighted upon 
a message which has since meant more 
than all the world to me and like the 
dreamer 

It flooded the crimson twilight, 
Like the close of an Angel's Psalm, 

And it lay on my fevered spirit. 
With the touch of Infinite calm. 

It quieted the pain and sorrow, 
Like love overcoming strife, 

It seemed the harmonious echo 

Of Heaven's Eternal Light. 

It linked all perplexed meanings 

Into one perfect peace, — but not 
99 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

like the dreamer's chord which trembled 
into silence and was lost, it left its im- 
press so indelible upon my heart and so 
flooded my soul with Heaven's Eternal 
Peace and Joy, that that impress was the 
turning of my life for God and that 
sweet chord of life was sounded from 
the Old Testament, and this is what it 
said: ''As I live saith the Lord God, I 
have no pleasure in the death of the 
wicked, but rather that the wicked turn 
from his wickedness and live, turn ye, 
turn ye, from your evil ways for why 
will ye die." Exe. 33.11. 



100 



CHAPTER III. 
The Bible. Is It Divinely Inspired? 

In this chapter it is not my purpose to 
treat on the various theories of Inspira- 
tion, such as the Verbal, Plenary, Par- 
tial, or any other theory of Inspiration, 
but to present what I believe to be some 
of the evidences of Divine Inspiration, 
and to do so under two heads. First, In- 
ternal Evidences, second External. 

The importance of this subject is seen 
in the great amount of criticism which 
it has received. The age in which we now 
live, is indeed an evil age, not »o much 
because of the overwhelming increase of 
sin which is true, but because the funda- 
mental, the foundation truths of our 
Faith are attacked. The very Scrip- 
tures are attacked by some and denied 
to be the Word of God. 

Today we have a class of people 

101 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

called the Higher Critics, who after ex- 
amining certain portions of the Bible 
by methods of their own, declare the Bi- 
ble to be without Supernaturalism, and 
without Divine Authority. They say 
they do not believe the Old Testament, 
and only a portion of the New. They 
do not believe in the Incarnation of 
Christ, they do not believe His miracles, 
they say there is no Resurrection in the 
Bible, no Ascension, no Atonement, and 
so on, and even say that Jesus was not 
infallible. Merely all the teaching of 
the Bible they seem willing to accept is 
a little bit of the Sermon on the Mount. 
Of course these men wear long cleric- 
al coats and have highly polished man- 
ners and they pass off for very devout 
Christians and many people really be- 
lieve them to be so, but I want to say to 
the man who cuts up God's Word and 
tries to rob me of the fundamentals of 
my faith as laid down in God's Word, 
that he is nothing more than an infidel, 
in fact he is worse than that. There is 

102 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

no person but who expects a serpent to 
hiss when he is near, or a dog to bark, a 
lion to roar and even an infidel to adver- 
tise himself when he comes to town, but 
here is a man, who is a wolf in sheep's 
clothing. He has come as an angel of 
Light, under the pretence of a devout 
Christian, but his one object is to try 
and destroy God's Word. Now then if 
the criticisms of the higher critic be 
true, if the narratives referred to are on- 
ly myths, even though all the rest be ac- 
cepted, then it is impossible to say that 
the Bible is the Word of God. Either 
the criticisms are false, or else the Bible 
is not the Word of God. 

Objections to the Bible. 

There are those who today claim, that 
the Bible is nothing more than the in- 
ventions of good men. But to this claim 
we reply, that it could not possibly be 
the work of good men as some claim, for 
good men do not usually tell lies; and it 
certainly would be falsehood for anyone 

103 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

to write in the Bible: "Thus saith the 
Lord" when it is merely their own 
words. 

And then others say, that the Bible is 
the work of bad men, or the work of fal- 
len angels, but this likewise would be 
ridiculous and very unlikely for men, or 
angels of bad character, to write a book 
which commanded duty of all men, 
which forbids all sin and even condemns 
their own souls to hell through all eter- 
nity. 

Now, after carefully studying these 
objections to the Bible, we must con- 
clude that they are without ground and 
void of all reason and so far as the Di- 
vine authority of the Bible is concerned, 
it still remains unharmed. 

The Meaning of Inspiration: 

Before we consider the Evidence of 
Inspiration let us get at the meaning of 
the term Inspiration. 

The word Inspiration means ''God- 
breathed." It is composed of two Greek 

104 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

words, — Theos, meaning God, and 
Pneuein, meaning to breathe, and to say 
that the Scriptures are inspired of God, 
is to say that the Scriptures are God- 
breathed. 

Of course God must have some agen- 
cy into which to breathe and through 
which to record and to convey His mes- 
sage, so, if we compare 2. Peter i. 21. 
''For the prophecy came not in old time 
by the will of men, but holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost" with the words of our text 
"All scripture is given by inspiration of 
God" we find the agency which God 
used in recording His revelation of truth 
and in conveying His messages to His 
people. 

Again, by comparing these two pas- 
sages of scripture we see, that Inspira- 
tion is the strong conscious inbreathing 
of God into men, qualifying them to 
give utterance to truth, in other words, 
to say the Bible is the inspired word of 
God, is to say, that the Bible is truth re- 

105 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

vealed by God to the minds of men and 
then that truth recorded under the guid- 
ance of the Holy Spirit. (Book of 
Books.) 

Now, what are we to infer from the 
word "Air' recorded in our text? "All 
scripture is given by inspiration of 
God." 

There are those who tell us that the 
word, all, here, does not imply all the Bi- 
ble, but only the Old Testament, or that 
which was written up to the time of 
Paul writing the words of the text. Let 
that be as it may, all who wrote after 
Paul, also claim to be divinely inspired 
for the task of writing as did the apostle 
Paul and the last writer, John, the aged 
apostle, closes the record of truth, with 
this solemn warning "If any man shall 
take away from the words of the book of 
this prophecy, God shall take away his 
part out of the book of life and out of 
the holy city and from the things which 
are written in this book." Rev. 22.19. 

Now while there are many things 

106 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

which rest upon faith alone and must be 
accepted alone by faith, yet it is not nec- 
essary that we accept the Bible alone by 
faith, since God has given to us both In- 
ternal and External evidence of the Di- 
vine origin of His Word. 



EVIDENCES OF DIVINE INSPI- 
RATION. 



Internal Evidence: The Testimony 
of Christ. 

In the beautiful sermon which Jesus 
delivered to His disciples upon the 
Mount, we find Jesus defending the 
Scriptures and saying, "Think not that 
I am come to destroy the Law and the 
Prophets, I came not to destroy but to 
fulfill, for verily I say unto you, till 
heaven and earth pass one jot or one tit- 
tle shall in no wise pass till all be ful- 
filled." Matt 5 17.18. 

And speaking concerning the stability 

107 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

and endurance of the Scriptures, Jesus 
said: ''The Scriptures cannot be broken. 
John. lo. 35. And yet again, in giving 
to the disciples His parting benediction, 
He prayed "Sanctify them through thy 
truth, thy Word is Truth" John. 17.17. 
And how very noticeable it is, that no 
less than four hundred times does the 
Lord Jesus quote or refer to the Old 
Testament scriptures. Surely in these 
passages we cannot fail to see Christ be- 
lieving the scriptures as Divine revela- 
tion and defending them as such. Now 
if Christ were the Truth, as He claims 
to be, and as we believe Him to be, how 
can any man be a believer in Christ and 
reject the scriptures which Christ Him- 
self accepted and believed to have their 
origin with God. Doubtless there are 
many today who do not believe in the 
Divine origin of Christ, infidels of every 
type and yet even these men speak in the 
most respectful terms of Jesus Christ 
and look upon Him as the best man that 
ever lived. And so if He was, and He 

108 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

certainly was, why then should not the 
testimony of Christ regarding the Scrip- 
tures be accepted as good; or how can 
any man bow before Christ as greater 
than the greatest and then turn from 
Him when He speaks of the scriptures 
as the Word of God. 

The Testimony of Miracles: 

The success of the Gospel during the 
time of our Lord and His apostles, was 
greatly due to the miraculous power 
which they manifested. There are many 
who today ask, why do we not see the 
working of miracles today among 
Christian workers as was done by Christ 
and His apostles? The answer is this, 
God is today working miracles, al- 
though another kind of miracle to those 
done in the days of Christ and the apos- 
tles. Every time a soul is born again, 
God by the Holy Spirit performs a mira- 
cle just as great as any performed by 
Him while upon earth. Again, miracles 
were associated with the teachings of 

109 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Christ and the apostles as an evidence 
that the gospej they were introducing 
came from God. This is why Nicode- 
mus said to Jesus, as recorded in the 
third chapter of John and verse two, 
"Rabbi, we know that thou are a teach- 
er come from God ; for no man can do 
these miracles which thou doest, except 
God be with him.'' So we see from the 
fact that miracles were associated with 
the teachings of Christ, and the same 
thing is true of the Apostles, that they 
were performed as an evidence that the 
religion they were establishing came 
from none other than from God and the 
whole purpose of Christ in working mir- 
acles was to give the people a revelation 
of the Father. 

The Testimony of the Morality of The 

Bible. 

The high standard of holiness which 
is taught throughout the entire Bible, 
is an evidence of its divine origin. 

As we study more and more the vari- 

110 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

ous systems of religion which have their 
origin in the mind of man, we are con- 
vinced that their moral force is nothing 
more than ritualism and the burden of 
the ritual demanding strict observance, 
the worshippers claim as an excuse for 
neglecting moral duties. For instance, 
there are many today whose religion ex- 
tends no furthur than the observance of 
the church ritual. Mohammedanism 
gives the highest reward to those who 
fight and fall in conflict; Hindooism re- 
wards most those who observe best the 
worship of the ritual, and Jewish tradi- 
tion taught that all Jews were certainly 
saved. But the Scripture, the blessed 
Word of God, brings all men alike into 
the presence of a Being of infinite holi- 
ness before whom the loftiest characters 
fall condemned; the heart of every man 
is naked to the eyes of God and all men 
in His sight, are condemned alike as 
sinners with their salvation and their 
holiness in Jesus Christ. 

Ill 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

The Testimony of Prophecy: 

With one consent the Prophets of 
scripture regarded themselves the 
spokesmen of God. In approaching the 
people with a message, there was at- 
tached to their message a formula which 
the people accepted as coming from God 
Himself, "Thus saith the Lord" — *'Hear 
ye the word of the Lord" and the AVord 
of the Lord came unto me" — the pro- 
phet claimed that his message came 
from God, and the people accepted it as 
such; and the very fact that their mes- 
sage was fulfilled as it had been pro- 
claimed to the people was a sure evi- 
dence that it had its origin with God. 
And to the prophet of old we must give 
the verdict of scripture, that holy men of 
old spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost. How noticeable it is that 
there is not a single prophetic utterance 
in the Old Testament, but what has al- 
ready been fulfilled or will be. We can- 
not dwell at length on this subject of 

112 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

prophecy, but I do want to make refer- 
ence to one or two particular lines. 

The first is in relation to Jesus Christ. 
There is not a single prophetic utter- 
ance in the Old Testament regarding 
the first coming of Christ, the manner 
of His coming, the manner of His life, 
the purpose of His coming, the nature of 
His w^ork, the nature of His sufferings 
upon the Cross of Calvary, even the 
very words which He uttered while up- 
on the cross, but were predicted in some 
instances, thousands of years before He 
came into the world at all, and they have 
all been fulfilled to the very letter. 

Then take the prophecy regarding 
Israel, in her attitude toward the com- 
ing of Christ. Though Christ was to 
come as Israel's Messiah, prophecy 
taught that Israel would reject Him, 
and she has done so, and because of her 
rejection of Christ we view the Jewish 
people today, no longer as a nation, but 
dispersed abroad throughout the uni- 
verse as a flock of sheep without a shep- 

113 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

herd. But prophecy also teaches that 
Christ shall come again, the second 
time, and then shall Israel gladly re- 
ceive Him. I want to ask, "What is the 
attitude of Israel today toward His re- 
turn?" Does she believe that Jesus is 
coming back again? Yea, verily, none 
believe it more truly than do the Jewish 
people. Israel waits in loving anticipa- 
tion for His return, and she stands to- 
day with her hands outstretched, wait- 
ing to welcome her Lord. The Scrip- 
tures also plainly teach that Israel is to 
return to her own land. ''For the Lord 
will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet 
choose Israel, and set them in their own 
land, and the strangers shall be joined 
unto them, and they shall cleave unto 
the house of Jacob. And the people shall 
take them, and bring them to their 
place: and the house of Israel shall pos- 
sess them in the land of the Lord, for 
servants and handmaids : and they shall 
take them captives, whose captives they 

114 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

were; and they shall rule over their op- 
pressors." Isaiah 14. i. 2. 

Who has not become interested in the 
Zionist scheme organized to enable the 
Jews to get back to Palestine, and who 
can fail to see in this the workings of 
Providence. Our Hope, a magazine de- 
voted to the study of Jewish prophecy, 
in a recent issue, has this to say, *'With 
the Sultan Abdul Hamid deposed, the 
Zionists have never had a better oppor- 
tunity for carrying out their wishes. 
The movement was started in a political 
sense, about twelve years ago, by Dr. 
Theidore Herzl, a Vienese journalist. 
Dr. Herzl tried to enter into negotia- 
tions, before his death, with Sultan Ab- 
dul Hamid to open the doors of Pales- 
tine to the Jews, and to grant autonomy 
to the territory. He was unsuccessful 
in his efforts, but he initiated a wide 
spread movement. A leading New 
York Zionist says, "The opponents of 
Zionism do not measure the amount of 
work which has been done in the really 

115 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

short time we have been organized. Not 
only have we in Palestine these thous- 
ands of colonists, but we have a national 
fund, collected from the small contri- 
butions of poor people all over 
the world, the money of which is being 
used for the development of land. We 
have a Palestine Development Com- 
pany, a Jewish Colonial Trust, and a 
bank with headquarters in London, and 
branches in Palestine, which assists 
Jewish settlers in their colonization. 
We have cultural organizations estab- 
lished in the Holy Land, and our people 
who are there do not speak Turkish or 
Arabic, or Russian, or Yiddish, or any 
of their imimgrant languages, but they 
have learned the pure old Hebrew of 
their forefathers, and speak and write it 
as a living language. I consider that as 
perhaps the most auspicious phenom- 
enon in this movement, for if there is 
anything that is a basis of a nationality 
it is to have a distinct native language.'' 
Thus we see Palestine is rapidly be- 

116 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

coming Jewish. The most striking fact 
is that as the Jews get hold of the land, 
the Arabs become domesticated, and en- 
ter as workers the service of the Jews, 
and so many Jews are there in Palestine 
already that Jerusalem must rightly be 
called a Jewish cit}^ The God-breathed 
words of the prophets contain good and 
evil for the people of Israel. All the pre- 
dictions announcing their judicial 
blindness, their dispersion among the 
nations of the earth, their different suf- 
ferings have been literally fulfilled. 
Deut. 28. 15-68. is fearful readings, but 
every word has come true. And now we 
behold with our eyes the gradual fulfill- 
ing of the promise of their return to 
Palestine, and truly what an argument 
it is for the inspiration of the Bible. 
Thousands of years ago the Bible re- 
corded these things. Where did she get 
her knowledge? It could have been 
from none other source, than God im- 
puted it to the minds of men. 

117 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

11. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 



The Effect of the Religion of the Bible 

in the Lives of Nations and 

Individuals. 

Wherever the religion of the Bible 
has gone, it has left the stamp of its 
transforming power in the lives of those 
v^ho have embraced its teachings. Na- 
tions and individuals alike testify to the 
marvelous transforming powder of the 
religion of the Bible. Before the intro- 
duction of the Gospel of Christ in 
Greece the grossest impurities were en- 
couraged. At Rome they were openly 
practiced and approved of and in many 
other cities human sacrifices, and the 
exposure of children were allowed and 
enforced. But wherever the Gospel of 
Christ has gone these practices have 
been openly condemned and finally de- 
stroyed. History teaches us that be- 
fore the Christian religion was intro- 
duced at Constantinople, there w^as riot 

118 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

a single charitable institution in the 
whole of that great city for the care of 
the poor and the relief of suffering, but 
soon after its introduction, there was no 
less than thirty such institutions. And 
the same thing may be said of Rome, 
Prior to Christianity, not a single char- 
itable institution existed, but soon after 
there were twenty-five such buildings, 
and wherever the Gospel of Christ has 
gone, it has made an end of sin; it has 
abolished the horrors of war; set at lib- 
erty the slaves, and improved the laws 
of barbarous nations. 

It is Dr. Henry VanDyke who writes, 
"I look at every forward step which the 
world for eighteen hundred years has 
taken out of the darkness into the 
broader light of a new day, and at the 
head of a marching host, I see the ban- 
ner of Christ. Take the Christian senti- 
ment clean out of the people of any land 
and see how many reformations you can 
accomplish." 

But not only is its transforming 

119 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

power seen in the nations and cities 
whence the old gospel has gone, but 
also in the lives of individual men and 
women. The following passage is tak- 
en from a booklet by Ivan Panin now 
out of print, and deals with his own per- 
sonal experience: *'A marvelous thing 
had meanwhile come to pass in the life 
of the author. Hitherto he had sought 
wisdom all his da3^s and sought it most 
earnestly: sought it in art, sought it in 
philosophy, sought it in letters, sought 
it in college, sought it in the world, 
sought it from professors, sought it 
from preacher, sought it laughing, cry- 
ing; sought it in yearning, sobbing. And 
many indeed were the things he 
learned in the search. The physiolo- 
gist told him how to make frogs' 
legs dance; the astronomer told him 
that Sirius does not really twinkle, 
and the naturalist told him that 
the serpent once had legs and lost 
them in his attempts at evolution. The 
philosopher told him that the universe 

120 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

is a machine, the scientist that men have 
only recently grown wiser than monk- 
eys. The artist explained to him how 
he writes merely for the sake of writing, 
the preacher that one can be a Christian 
teacher even as' agnostic. Lastly the pro- 
fessor of ethics convinced the writer 
that he was an excellent fellow. But 
not a soul even as much as whispered to 
him that the fear of the Lord is the be- 
ginning of w^isdom and that the knowl- 
edge of the most high is understanding. 
As upon these sentences he at last stum- 
bled, as it were in the book which is 
found indeed on many a parlor table in 
Christendom, but has to be dusted twice 
a week. The net sum of the writer's 
fruitless search after wisdom, was that 
he began to look into that book in earn- 
est. And what he found was this: He 
had faithfully and admiringly studied 
Homer and Plato, Virgil and Cicero, 
Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, 
Aeschylus and Sophocles, Confucius 
and Budda, Mahomet and Saadi, 

121 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Shakespeare and Bacon, Dante and Ros- 
seau, Descartes and Spinoza, Kant and 
Schopenhauer, Goethe and Herder, 
Straus and Buchner, Emerson and Car- 
lyle, Ruskin and Arnold, Darwin and 
Spencer, Proudhon and Tolstoy. In all 
of these is held forth more or less the 
promise of Life. But the writer has sor- 
rowfully found that though these do not 
indeed offer a stone for bread, yet they 
give shelter to the soul, such as the 
dweller in the slum tenement of the city 
hath in comparison with the soil tillers 
homestead in the country. They give in- 
deed food unto the heart, but it is the 
watered milk and the larded butter, and 
the refrigerated beef of the city, with 
its constant need of allopath and home- 
opath, rather than the creamy milk of 
farmer his pure butter and the fatted 
calf of the country. On Carlyle and Em- 
erson, Plato Aurelius, Ruskin and Tol- 
stoy, one can indeed live, but the acci- 
dent policy must be carefully taken out 
before the journey, and a goodly supply 

122 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

of all manner of liniments, sarsaparilla, 
and otherwise, must ever be at hand for 
the mumps and measles of the soul, 
which, say what these teachers may, 
will not down for other than brief time. 
Not so, however, with the Book. For it 
tells of one who spake as never man 
spake, who was the true Bread of Life, 
that, which cometh down from the 
heavens, of which, if a man eat he shall 
never hunger." 

And then what shall we say to the 
thousands the world over, who have ac- 
cepted the teachings of the Bible and 
are living testimonies of the power of 
its Religion. Let me say that the Pow- 
er which has been manifested down the 
ages of time and which is manifested to 
us today in the lives of men and women 
who have embraced the teachings of the 
Bible, is an evidence of its Divine ori- 
gin and that it could not possibly be the 
product of man's mind. 

123 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

The Testimony of Science. 

In the following address we shall deal 
exclusively with the Bible and Science, 
so we will refer only to two valuable 
testimonies of Science to the Inspira- 
tion of the Bible given to us by Dr. John 
Urqhuart. There are those who say 
that they are not willing to accept the 
teachings of the Bible because they 
do not agree with the teachings 
of science. First, let me re- 
mind you that the Bible never was in- 
tended to be a text-book on science, but 
in giving it to the world, God intended 
that its sole purpose should be to reveal 
His plan of salvation, and secondly, al- 
though many may claim that the Bible 
and science do not agree, yet the more 
learned men of science today have come 
to the conclusion that science in the 
twentieth century is proving the Bible, 
which it once condemned, to be true. 

For instance, in the beginning of the 
Bible Geneses i. 3. we read, ''and God 

124 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

said let there be light and there was 
light." 

Now the argument of science for 
many years was that it was absolutely 
impossible for light to exist before, or 
without the sun, as indicated in the be- 
ginning of the Bible and therefore they 
claimed that it could not possibly be the 
Word of God. But during the last few 
years science after deeper research has 
come to the conclusion that it must be 
so. Here is one of the biggest discover- 
ies ever made by science in the begin- 
ning of the twentieth century and yet it 
was taught in the Bible more than 34 
centuries ago. This proves that the 
mind which placed this great truth in 
the Bible was noneotherthanthemindof 
God. Moreover we have today in the 
Bodelian library at Oxford Eng., a man- 
ifesto, or a declaration drawn up and 
signed by six hundred and seventeen 
scientific men and most of them the 
most eminent scientists in the world, to 
this fact, that the Bible is in the most 

125 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

perfect harmony with the best skilled 
science. 

The Testimony of Archaeology. 

Possibly one of the strongest and 
most marvelous testimonies to the Di- 
vine Origin of the Bible is the evidence 
of Archaeology. Men of supposed 
learning, v^ho have claimed in the past 
to have known more than the Bible, have 
said that certain wars and kingdoms re- 
corded in the Bible, could never have ex- 
isted or have come to pass and for this 
reason they have denied the Bible and 
said it is false. But God the Divine Au- 
thor, has kept secret in the bosom of 
the earth this grand and noble testi- 
mony even until now. During the last 
few years, the British Government and 
others have been at work excavating in 
Egypt and in other Eastern countries 
and what is the result? While digging 
in the heart of the earth they have 
found whole buried cities, cities record- 
ed in scripture and which our learned 

126 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

men have told us could never have ex- 
isted and yet God through these excava- 
tors is bringing forth the grandest evi- 
dence to the truth of His Word. Take 
for instance the books of Moses, from 
the Creation to the Conquest in Can- 
aan. Because of the antiquity of these 
books, we have no record of what took 
place during this period, outside of the 
Bible record, except what has come to 
light within the last thirty-five years. 
Excavators have discovered in Egypt 
monuments which give to us the history 
of God's ancient people from Creation 
to Canaan. Surely such evidence as 
this along with the testimony of many 
other discoveries, convince our hearts 
of the truth of God's Word. 

The Testimony of Fire. 

And then last but not least, we think 
of the fires of the fiercest persecutions 
which have been assailed at the old 
Book. 

We think of the efforts of the Romish 

127 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

church in the early centuries to try and 
abolish the Bible by fire, but God has 
preserved His Own Word both against 
fire and stream and today there are 
more Bibles throughout the world than 
there has ever been before, bearing out 
the testimony of the Word itself "The 
grass withereth and the flower fadetn, 
but the Word of our God shall stand 
forever. Isaiah. 40.8. 

Now then from the evidence that we 
have seen, from the claims of the Bible 
itself, from the testimony of Christ 
from the testimony of miracles, from 
the testimony of moral standard of the 
Bible, from prophecy, from the effect 
of the religion of the Bible in the lives of 
nations and individuals, from the testi- 
mony of science, from the testimony of 
archaeology and from the testimony of 
its long endurance though persecuted 
by fire; putting all this evidence to- 
gether, though critics may lash it and 
cut it with the knife, there is but this 
one conclusion "the Bible could be of 

128 



THE BIBLE. IS IT DIVINELY INSPIRED? 

none other origin than to come from 
God" and when I hear anyone ridicule 
or deny the teachings of God's Word, I 
am reminded of a story told by a gentle- 
man about his little dog. ''The first time 
our young dog heard thunder it startled 
him. He leaped out, gazed around and 
then began to bark at the disturber of 
his peace. When the next crash came 
he grew fierce and flew around the 
room, seeking to tear to pieces the in- 
truder who dared thus defy him. It was 
an odd scene. The yelping dog pitted 
against the artillery of heaven. The 
poor foolish creature, to think that his 
bark could silence the thunder clap, or 
intimidate the tempest of heaven. What 
was he like? His imitators are not far 
to seek. Among us are people of ex- 
ceeding doggish breed, who go about 
howling at their maker. They endeavor 
to bark the Almighty out of existence; 
and try to silence the voice of His warn- 
ings. They both deny and defy Him to- 
day, but they may be crushed beneath 

129 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

His righteous indignation tomorrow." 
Let us stand by the old Book which 
gives to us God's universal and eternal 
plan of salvation, which is a lamp to our 
feet and a light to our path and let me 
conclude this chapter with the message 
of the Apostle Paul, "But though we, or 
an angel from heaven, preach any other 
Gospel unto you than that which we 
have preached unto you, let him be ac- 
cursed. As we said before, so say I now 
again, if any man preach any other Gos- 
pel unto you than that ye have received 
let him be accursed." Galations. 1.8. 



130 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Bible and Science. 

In the preceding address, under the 
Inspiration of Bible, after considering 
the various evidences of Inspiration, we 
saw and accepted the Bible as the Word 
of God. We considered the claims of 
scripture itself ''All Scripture is given 
by Inspiration of God" — "The Scrip- 
tures cannot be broken" — For prophecy 
came not in old time by the will of men, 
but holy men of old spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost" — The Son of 
God suffered that the scriptures might 
be fulfilled" and in the Words of Christ 
himself ''The heavens and the earth 
shall pass away, but my words shall not 
pass away." Now such claims as these 
ought to free our hearts and minds from 
any doubt or contradiction, error, or 
falsehood which may be laid against the 

131 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Book of God.' And yet in this age of 
doubt and reasoning, we are constantly 
perplexed and led to believe that the 
Word of God is full of contradiction and 
error. 

For instance, the Discoveries of Mod- 
ern Science are supposed to be a dis- 
proof of the inspiration and Divine au- 
thority of the Scriptures. The claim is 
frequently made that the scripture rec- 
ords do not agree with the recent dis- 
coveries of modern science and hence 
they are contradictory and not of Di- 
vine origin. Of course there are several 
things to be taken in consideration in 
judging the Authority of the sacred 
Scriptures in the light of Scientific Dis- 
covery. 

For instance, the purpose of the Bible 
was never intended to serve as a text 
book on science, it has a higher and more 
noble purpose than that; it was to reveal 
God's plan of Human Redemption and 
to elevate man to a higher plane of mor- 
al living. Of course there are scientific 

132 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

and physical allusions throughout its 
pages and the Bible furnishes any 
amount of material which might be 
classified under the Natural Sciences, 
but are not the sciences themselves. 

Studying the Bible in this light, Dr. 
Birks, author of the Bible and modern 
Thought, reminds us of the fact that in 
speaking of natural objects, the Bible 
deals with facts visible to the senses of 
man and not with the secret causes 
which lie hidden from general view. For 
instance, it speaks of sunrise and sunset, 
of the waxing and waning of the moon, 
but not of the earth's revolution, or the 
laws that guide the motion of our satel- 
lite, or determine its spheres. It speaks 
of hail mingled with fire from heaven, 
but propounds no theory of electricity 
to account for the violence of the 
thunderstorm, and the strange contrast 
of heat and cold which follow the 
thunderstorm. It likewise speaks of 
trees and planets, from the cedar of Le- 
banon, to the hyssop which grows upon 

133 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

the wall, but does not classify them un- 
der any particular branch of science and 
why? "Because to treat on scientific 
messages in detail would be entirely out 
of place in a book whose purpose was 
altogether another subject and not only 
so, but while it might be of interest to 
the student of science in the twentieth 
century it certainly would be out of 
place even to the common people of to- 
da}^, to say nothing of the people in the 
early age in which the Revelation was 
written. 

Then again, we would not expect to 
find Theology in a text-book on science 
and yet it should not surprise us if we 
should find allusions to science in a text- 
book on Theology, the purpose of which 
is to reveal the Divine Plan of Redemp- 
tion being mindful of this fact, that the 
God of the Bible is the Lord of Nature 
in whom are hid all the treasures of wis- 
dom and knowledge." 

134 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

Conjecture in Science and Religion. 

But why is there seemingly such lack 
of harmony between Science and the Bi- 
ble? Is there a reasonable cause for 
this? Now we know that there is a posi- 
tive line of teaching and investigation 
which is always safe to follow and con- 
clusions reached as the result of clear 
and undeniable propositions are alone 
worthy of our acceptance. If we keep 
within this circle of study we are sure 
to develope confidence and harmoniza- 
tions are possible, but outside of it lies 
the wide range of conjecture in which 
difference of opinion arises and conflict 
rages. There may be and no doubt is, 
a legitimate use of probability and pos- 
sibility, but there is a great danger of 
carrying it to excess, in fact I fear many 
have abused the use of it, both in mat- 
ters of Science and of Religion. 

I remember clipping an article some- 
where, the author I know not who, but it 
expresses my thoughts on this matter 
even better than I can myself. It is as 

135 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

follows: Scientists are not content with 
giving us the positive facts of science, 
but seem to delight in the conjectural 
and some of them come to put as much 
confidence in their outgivings in this di- 
rection as in the departments about 
which there is no dispute. Tney have 
developed a sort of scientific conjecture 
that passes under the guise of notable 
names as accepted postulates. On the 
other hand there is a sphere of revela- 
tion which regulates and bounds relig- 
ious thought and formulation and with- 
in which an authoritative character 
gathers about the studies of theologians 
and critics. But when they go beyond 
what is written, or when they interpret 
the inspired Oracles in the light of their 
intellectual and spiritual uncertainties, 
they start divergences and antagonisms. 
Today the Church and the world is 
suffering greatly from discussions, 
investigations, publications, based 
largely, if not wholly, on this prin- 
ciple of inference and re- 

136 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

search. We would not entirely ig- 
nore or indiscriminately denounce it, 
but we cannot accept conclusions de- 
duced from it when they contend 
against Divine authority or tend to 
weaken or undermine Scripture itself. 
True, conjectural theories may have 
their place as hypothesis or workable 
premises, but they ought not be regard- 
ed as final judgments, or as verified fac- 
tors. They savor too much of the hu- 
man element, as intellectual devices or 
as expedients for special purposes, to be 
accepted as undisputed forms of belief 
and practice. Consequently they must 
be duly scrutinized and weighed and not 
taken on their face value. How very 
noticeable it is that different investiga- 
tors reach different conclusions under 
the direction of conjecture. Their esti- 
mates vary under modifying conditions 
and often those working in the same 
fi.eld of investigation antagonize each 
other in their findings. 

The writer goes on to say, it is won- 

137 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

derful how greatly what is known as 
the higher, or literary criticism of the 
Scriptures is made up of the conjectural. 
The critic is constantly indulging in 
such expressions as these: "It is prob- 
able;" "It is likely;" "It is possible;" "It 
may be;" "it appears so;" "it is hard to 
think otherwise;" "it is surmised;" "we 
think;" "in our opinion;" and so on 
through the round of his various anno- 
tations. Is it any wonder that there 
should be confusion, diversion and an- 
tagonism. Theology built up in this 
way, becomes not only a variable, but 
an uncertain product. More or less 
scholarly interest may be developed and 
the student of probabilities and possibil- 
ities may be quite sure of his conclu- 
sions; but more able and shrewder in- 
vestigators come after him and upset 
many of them, while the public is left in 
doubt as to what conjectures are most 
worthy of recognition and acceptance. 
But the ordinary mind in the religious 

138 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

Sphere craves not conflicting opinion, 
but certainty. 

Now a large portion of the alleged an- 
tagonism, between science and religion 
comes from the abuse of conjecture. 
When the scientist goes beyond the 
positive in science and the preacher ven- 
tures outside of what is clearly revealed 
there will be conflict, sharp and grow- 
ing, between the Natural and the Spir- 
itual. God is the author of both Nature 
and Revelation and he who reads each 
book as the Lord intended will see har- 
mony and find each in its relation and 
design, serving the purpose for which 
each was given. In each domain there 
is much to be discovered and much 
about which it is not well to conjecture, 
God shows Himself to be infinite 
and the finite mind must accept the fact 
and be content not to pry into insolv- 
able mysteries and difficulties. The ma- 
terial and spiritual world are open to 
our investigation as far as permissible, 
and to this extent repays our efforts, 

139 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

but when we dive into that which is be- 
yond our discernment, we only vex our 
souls and get no commensurate returns 
for our labor and pains." 

I wonder if this is not true in the 
experience of many of us as it was in the 
experience of Professor Regard. Prof. 
Hegard, Professor of Philosophy in the 
University of Copenhagen, was at one 
time known as the apostle of atheism in 
his country. Writing in one of his 
works he says, "The experiences of life, 
its sufferings and griefs, have shaken 
my soul and have broken the foundation 
upon which I formerly thought I could 
build. Full of faith in the sufficiency of 
science, I thought to have found in it a 
sure refuge from all contingencies of 
life. The illusion is vanished; the moor- 
ings, the cable of science, broke like 
thread. Then I seized upon that help 
which many before me have laid hold of. 
I sought and found peace with God. 
Since then I have certainly not aban- 
doned science but I have assig-ned^o it 

140 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

another place in my life." I fear breth- 
ren, that many of us are guilty of put- 
ting too much confidence in uncertain- 
ties. 

Objections and Answers. 

Possibly there is no chapter in the Bi- 
ble, which has received so much criti- 
cism and which is more frequently at- 
tacked by the scientific scholar of today 
as the first chapter of Genesis. A teach- 
er supposed to be learned in the sciences 
was one day heard to make this re- 
mark: "No man who knows anything 
about history or science, would think of 
calling the first chapter of Genesis 
either Historical or Scientific" and yet 
this statement is refuted by the best 
skilled scientists, who assure us that the 
first chapter of Genesis agrees absolute- 
ly with everthing that is known scien- 
tifically, concerning the origin and the 
early history of the earth. 

One of the things that has been loose- 
ly charged against the Bible, is the fact 

141 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

of Creation; some have gone so far as to 
reject the fact of Creation on the 
grounds of being unscientific. Now to 
believe in God v^ho is the Creator of 
all things that exist, is to believe in mir- 
acles and this the science of evolution is 
unv\^illing to admit, for the reason that 
they believe that the existence and con- 
dition of things, are the result of natur- 
al development. But does it not seem 
most unfair that science should reject 
the record of creation, simply because it 
is miraculous and therefore not under- 
standable to the mind of man for we 
must conclude that science has not as 
yet taught us all that we can possibly 
know for there are yet many things un- 
known and that which we have already 
learned, ought to increase our reverence 
rather than our egotism. 

It is none other than William Jen- 
nings Bryan, who says, "True science 
has declared some of the machinery of 
the universe, but science has not yet 
made known the greatest of all secrets, 

142 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

the secret of life. As we study nature, 
we find life in every blade of grass, in 
every insect, in every bird, in every ani- 
mal, in every man, and yet after six 
thousand years of recorded history, 
man knows no more of the mystery of 
life than at the beginning. Today we 
live and plan and have hopes and fears 
and yet in a moment of time, a change 
comes over us and we become a mass of 
lifeless clay. What is it that possessing 
we live and not possessing we are as the 
clod. This is one of the things we can- 
not tell and yet the progress of the race 
and the civilization which we now see, 
are the works of men and women who 
cannot tell the mystery of their own 
lives. How foolish it would be for peo- 
ple to refuse to eat anything until they 
could understand the mystery of the 
growth of that which they eat, why, the 
natural consequence would be they 
would die of starvation and the mystery 
would still lie unsolved, but some how 
or another mystery does not seem to 

143 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

bother people in the dining room it is 
only in the church." 

One thing that has always appealed 
to me in this direction, is Mr. Bryan's 
illustration of the watermelon. He tells 
of being in a restaurant on one occasion 
and while eating a piece of watermelon, 
was forcibly impressed with its beauty. 
He says he took some of the seed and 
dried them and found that it would take 
five thousand seeds to weigh a single 
pound and then at once began to apply 
mathematics to that forty pound water- 
melon. One of those little seeds placed 
in the ground, warmed by the sun and 
moistened by the rain, goes to work, it 
gathers from somewhere two hundred 
times its own weight and forcing that 
raw material through a tiny stem con- 
structs a watermelon. It covers the out- 
side with a coating of green and on the 
inside of that it puts a layer of white and 
on the inside of the white, a core of red 
and then all through the red it scatters 
seeds, each one capable of the work of 

144 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

reproduction. Here Mr. Bryan makes 
his query. Where did that little seed 
get its tremendous power? Where did 
it get its coloring matter? From 
whence its flavoring extract? How did 
it build a watermelon? and he thus con- 
cludes, until you can explain to me a 
watermelon, do not be sure that you can 
set limits to the power of the Almighty 
or tell Him what to do and how it ought 
to be done. Brethren, life is composed 
of mysteries and why should we deny 
the Power of God simply because the 
Bible ascribes to Him the act of Crea- 
tion. 

Among the acts of Creation, one 
thing that has been largely disputed is 
the Bible and which was referred to in 
part, in the preceding chapter is the rec- 
ord that light existed before the sun. 

Many scientists seem to have accept- 
ed the Newtonian theory that Light is 
dependent upon the Sun and to say that 
light existed before the Sun only shows 
the Bible to be unscientific and without 

145 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

inspiration. Now Dr. Urqhuart of good 
authority and author of "Modern Dis- 
coveries and the Bible" tells us that it is 
properly understood by the more 
learned scientists of today, that Light is 
not dependent upon the Sun but is the 
result of force, causing the waves of 
ether to vibrate with an almost infinite 
rapidity. The greatness of that force is 
seen in the fact that light travels with a 
velocity of 186,000 miles a second. But 
what is that force, the creative power of 
light? Read Genesis 1.2. And the earth 
was waste and void; and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit 
of God moved upon the face of the wa- 
ters. The word moved used in the text 
is in the continuative form of tlie verb, 
and means, not only moved, but kept 
moving and as the result of the force of 
the Spirit of God moving upon the face 
of the chaotic mass, produced light. 
Now science today accepts this as truth 
and agrees with the record of Scripture 
that Light is not dependent upon the 

146 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

Sun, but that it existed before and with- 
out the Sun. This, says Dr. Urqhuart, 
is one of the biggest discoveries made 
by science, during the years of the 
twentieth century and yet the Bible re- 
corded it more than thirty-four centur- 
ies ago. 

The Mature Creation. 

Another part of the record of Crea- 
tion that is frequently attacked by the 
critic and called unscientific, is the fact 
that the Bible speaks of Life as first ap- 
pearing in Maturity. For instance we 
read in Genesis. I. ii, 12. also verses 20, 
21. that God in causing life to exist, first 
produced the Mature Product, which af- 
terward produced the germ of life. "And 
God said let the earth put forth grass, 
herbs yielding seed and fruit trees bear- 
ing fruit after their kind, wherein is the 
seed thereof, upon the earth; and it was 
so. And the earth brought forth grass, 
herbs yielding seed after their kind, and 
trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed 

147 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

thereof, after their kind, and God saw 
that it was good. And God said, let the 
waters swarm with living creatures, and 
let birds fly above the earth in the open 
firmament of heaven. And God created 
the great sea monsters and every living 
creature that moveth, wherewith the 
waters swarmed, after their kind and 
every winged bird, after their kind; and 
God saw that it was good." (R.V.) Now 
the reading of the text is, that in bring- 
ing forth grass, God caused the grass to 
appear, independent of the seed. In the 
production of vegetable life, Ood made 
the full grown fruit tree, which pro- 
duced the fruit after its kind. The ap- 
ple tree was produced first and not the 
apple. The pear tree first and not the 
pear seed. The Oak and not the Acorn. 
Likewise He made the full grown ani- 
mal first, which afterward produced its 
offspring. And in the Creation of man, 
God made him a perfect man, a combin- 
ation of dust and Deity, the woman out 
of the rib of the man He made a perfect 

148 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

woman and both with likewise powers 
of reproduction. Now the scientist tak- 
ing hold of these things said, this is un- 
scientific and unreasonable. Maturity 
said they is the process of evolution and 
it is folly to speak of life appearing in 
its maturity, without first appearing in 
the seed. For instance they say, the 
hen could not appear before the Qgg, the 
apple tree before the apple seed, the oak 
before the acorn and neither could ani- 
mal, or human life appear without first 
appearing in the very earliest stages of 
life. But in the progress of tlie twen- 
tieth century the scientist after further 
research declares that the record of 
Scripture must be true, that the germ of 
life is dependent upon the perfect Crea- 
tion and not the mature proauct upon 
the germ of life." (Dr. A. C. Dixon.) 

This brings to my mind a story, told 
of a conversation which took place be- 
tween a supposed educated skeptic and 
two young girls. A young man from 
the provinces, who was sent to Paris to 

149 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

finish his education, had the misfortune 
to get into bad company. He went so 
far as to wish and finally to say "There 
is no God; God is only a word." After 
staying several years at the capital, the 
young man returned to his family. One 
day he was invited to a respectable 
house where there was numerous com- 
pany. While all were entertaining 
themselves with news, pleasure and 
business, two girls, aged respectively 
twelve and thirteen, were seated in a 
bay window, reading together. The 
young man approached them and asked, 
"What beautiful romance are you read- 
ing so attentively young ladies?" "We 
are reading no romance, sir; we are read- 
ing the history of God's chosen people." 
"You believe then that there is a God?" 
Astonished at such a question, the girls 
looked at each other, the blood mount- 
ing to their cheeks. "And you, sir, do 
you not believe it?" "Once I believed it; 
but after living in Paris and studying 
philosophy, mathematics and politics, I 

150 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

am convinced that God is an empty 
word." "I, sir, never was in Paris; I have 
never studied philosophy, nor mathe- 
matics, nor any of those beautiful things 
.which you know; I only know my cate- 
chism; but since you are so learned and 
say there is no God, you can easily tell 
me whence the Qgg comes ?" "A funny 
question truly. The tgg comes from the 
hen." ''Which of them existed first, the 
tgg or the hen?" "I really do not know 
what you intend with this question and 
your hen; but yet that whicn existed 
first was the hen." ''There is a hen then, 
that did not come from the egg?" "Beg 
3^our pardon Miss, I did not take notice 
that the tgg existed first." "There is, 
then, an egg that did not come from a 
hen?" "Oh, if you — beg pardon — that is 
— you see — " "I see, sir, that you do not 
know whether the egg existed before 
the hen, or the hen before the egg?'' 
"Well, then, I say the hen." "Very well, 
there is a hen which did not come from 
an egg. Tell me now who made this 

151 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

first hen, from which all other hens and 
eggs come." "With your hens and your 
eggs, it seems to me that you take me 
for a poultry dealer." "By no means, 
sir; I only ask you to tell me wlience the 
mother of all hens and eggs came?" 
"But for what object?" "Well, since you 
do not know, you will permit me to tell 
you. He who created the first hen, or 
as you would rather have it, the first 
egg, is the same who created the world; 
and this Being we call God. You, who 
cannot explain the existence of a hen or 
an egg without God, still maintain the 
existence of this world without God." 
The young philosopher was silent; he 
quietly took his hat and full of shame, 
departed, if not convinced of his folly, 
at least confounded by the simple ques- 
tioning of a child. How many there are 
who, like him, professing to be wise, 
seem very foolish, speaking evil of 
things they know not of and denying 
things they never investigated. 

152 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

The Voice of Archaeology. 

And what shall we say to the Archae- 
ological findings. In our weekly Bible 
class, we have recently been studying 
the book of Nahum and were particular- 
ly interested in Nahum's prophecies of 
the destruction of Nineveh. So fully 
were these prophecies carried out and 
so totally was the city destroyed, that a 
few years later, not a vestige of it re- 
mained. Lucian, who lived in the Sec- 
ond Century and who was a native of 
that region, affirms that it had utterly 
perished and there was no footstep of it 
remaining, and its very site was for a 
long time a matter of uncertainty. Now 
the critics knowing this, went so far as 
to say that no such a place as Nineveh 
ever existed. But in the great Provi- 
dence of God, a young Englishman, by 
the name of Layard in 1845, supported 
with funds contributed by a wealthy 
nobleman began to unearth the city of 
Nineveh which had laid buried beneath 
the mounds for almost two thousand 

153 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

years. In the course of his work, he un- 
covered the palace of Sennacherab, the 
king of Assyria of (705 to 681. B. C.) 
Later in 1872, George Smith, an officer 
in the British Museum, digging further 
into the mounds of Nineveh, found thir- 
ty thousand tablets and cylinders be- 
longing to a collection made by Assur- 
banipal of the seventh century B. C. 
Speaking of these tablets, Mr. Walter 
Scott, the eminent Bible scholar, tells us 
that so full, abundant and precise are 
the stone records in the British Museum 
in London and in other priceless collec- 
tions from the ruined East, that open in- 
fidelity has received a rude cneck. So 
confirmatory has been the evidence in 
this respect, that the most distinguished 
Oriental scholar of the day Ims turned 
from the vagaries of Rationalism to the 
faith of Christ. The thirty thousand 
tablets comprising the Assyrian library 
in stone and equal in quantity to the 
contents oftheOldTestament and others 
besides have been deciphered. These 

154 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

inscriptions have confirmed the accur- 
acy of the Bible records of the wars and 
invasions of Sennacherab and proved 
them to the hilt. Some discrepancies 
there are between the Book and the 
stone, between the Hebrew historian 
and the heathen annalist. It would «have 
belied the eastern character had this not 
been the case, for we all know the ten- 
dency of the eastern mind to exagger- 
ate. Look at the Moabite stone written 
nearly 800 years before Christ, com- 
memorating the victories of Mesha, 
king of Moab, over Omri, king of Israel. 
This veritable monument of antiquity, 
contains the names of monarchs found 
in the second book of kings and of 
places mentioned in Jeremiah xlvi. Not 
that the Bible needs these confirmations 
it is an independent source of light, it 
gives and never borrows. The ruined 
East is a grand and noble witness to the 
truth of the Bible. 

And let me add to this, the noble tes- 
timony of Mr. Hugh R. Monro, who, 

155 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

writing in "The Bible of Today" de- 
clares that with all the delving into facts 
of ancient history during the past cen- 
tury, it is manifest that more attention 
has been given to the history of Israel 
than all other nations and peoples com- 
bined. Practically every essential state- 
ment from Genesis to Malachi, whether 
relating to a person, nation, custom, or 
locality, has been challenged at one time 
or another and large groups of scholars 
have questioned as to whether this rec- 
ord had actually had any historical ba- 
sis. Now archaeological research dur- 
ing the last century, has probably con- 
tributed more toward an answer to this 
question, than any other line of investi- 
gation. These imperishable records of 
clay and stone which have come to light 
in Assyria, Babylonia and Egypt, have 
produced such overwhelming confirma- 
tion of many important passages that 
for some time the question has almost 
disappeared from the field of contro- 
versy and the evidence continues to ac- 

156 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

cumulate. The recent books of Profes- 
sor Sayce, Dr. Petrie, Professors Clay 
and Wright, with many others present 
a mass of evidence resulting largely 
from original investigations which not 
only confirms the main facts of Israel's 
history as given in the Bible, but consti- 
tutes practically an independent record 
of great value to the Bible student. 
When we consider the perishable char- 
acter of our modern records and consid- 
er that the paper used in our books will 
crumble into dust in less than one hun- 
dred years, one can scarcely fail to be 
impressed by the Divine oversight in 
the preservation of these records for so 
many centuries, to be brought to light 
in this day of widespread controversy 
and doubt. 

I was very much impressed !n reading 
a report of the Palestine Exploration 
Fund, which recounts the interesting 
discovery of an inscription referring to 
Ben-hadad, which throws new light up- 
on the Biblical account of that kmg. The 

157 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

report says: ''Mr. Pognon, the French 
Counsul in Mesopotamia, has notified 
the Academic des Inscriptions of an im- 
portant discovery of four fragments of 
an extremely ancient Aramaic inscrip- 
tion of the eighth century B.C., referr- 
ing to Benhadad, son of Hazael, King of 
Syria, who is referred to in Jer. 49. 27 ; 
Amos 1.4, and 2 Kings 13 : The new text 
is the record of the victory of a certain 
Syrian king, Zakar, who defeated Ben- 
hadad and a number of allied chiefs. The 
battle seems to have taken place near 
Hazrak (see Zech. 9. I;). No mention 
of a Jewish king occurs, but this defeat 
of Ben-hadad by Zaker, helps to explain 
the facility with which Joash took again 
out of the hand of Ben-hadad, the cities 
his father, Hazael, had captured from 
Jehoahaz and thus recovers the cities of 
Israel. 

The deity to whom Ben-hadad attri- 
butes his success, is Bael-Shamem (Ba- 
al of the Heavens.)" This record of the 
shattering of the power of Syria, furn- 

158 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

ishes the missing link in the Scripture 
narrative 2. Kings 13. 22-25; indicating 
the reason why the cities were easily re- 
captured by Joash. 

Harmony Between Science and Chris- 
tianity. 

In his reply to the ^'Riddles of Haec- 
kel," Prof. J. F. Tristram, Master of 
Science in Hulme Grammar School, at 
Manchester England, writes, **Profes- 
sor Haeckel strongly asserts that sci- 
ence and Christianity are becoming 
more vehemently opposed as they pro- 
gress, that the honest conviction of all 
honest people today is to this clfect that 
the discredited, dominant doctrines of 
Christianity, are inevitably engaged in 
a struggle for life or death with the illu- 
minating, rational revelations of mod- 
ern science. The suppression 01 free 
thought and free scientific research are 
said to be almost imminent. It is a ques- 
tion for us of the necessary defense of 
science and reason, against the vigorous 

159 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

attacks of the Christian Church and its 
vast army, not an unprovoked attack of 
science on religion." What a travesty 
of facts! But what a confession! This 
discredited superstition, then, is actual- 
ly growing, is assuming a self-confident 
attitude, is realizing its living power 
and its increasing strength. Is it 
through "the inconceivable advance of 
knowledge in the last century?" We in 
England know how little truth there is 
in the idea that science and Christianity 
are becoming more opposed. We, who 
can point to so many men absolutely in 
the first rank, who combine a belief in 
science with a belief in Christianity, 
know that the truth is just the reverse, 
that men are beginning to see at last 
that there is no antagonism between 
faith in Christ and a thirst for knowl- 
edge, but quite the contrary. Then our 
author, after exhibiting his want of ac- 
quaintance with modern textual criti- 
cism and modern historical research, 
passes on to Papal Christianity. Here, 

160 



THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

to do him justice, he occasionally allows 
that the doing of so-called Christians 
were not Christian doing, but generally 
he strives to saddle the religion, with all 
the faults and crimes of its possessors. 
He ends up with a fine sentence: ''Un- 
believing philosophers, who have collec- 
ted disproofs of the existence of God, 
have overlooked one of the strongest ar- 
guments in that sense" "the fact that 
the Roman Vicar of Christ could for 
twelve centuries perpetrate with im- 
punity the most shameful and horrible 
deeds in the name of God?" As far as 
there is any argument here, it has been 
answered, and we would also beg leave 
to remind Professor Haeckel that if the 
religion of Christ could stand this ana 
yet survive, then it must be Divine! 

"This is likewise the testimony of 
Professor Dana of Yale, who today is 
considered the prince of geologists and 
who says, "One reason why I believe 
the Bible to be the Word of God, is be- 
cause of the marvelous accord of the or- 

161 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

der of Creation given in Genesis, with 
that worked out by the best skilled sci- 
entists. And to this we further add the 
witness of Lord Kelvin of England. 
'Thysical science has nothing to say 
against the order of Creation, as given 
in Genesis." (Dr. R. A. Torrey, in Bible 
Difficulties.) 

Science a Strengthening Force. 

And now in concluding this chapter, 
let me say that although a large part of 
the Christian Church still look upon the 
doctrines and spirit of modern science 
with suspicion, if not with many fears, 
in many places the scientific spirit is be- 
ginning to be recognized as a strong al- 
ly of religion. This statement is en- 
larged upon editorially in the ''Biblical 
World,'' of a recent issue, which claims 
that the assimiliation of the scientific 
spirit in the realm of Theology and Re- 
ligion, unifies the spiritual life with a 
new and powerful weapon for its own 
distinctive purposes. 

162 



\ 

THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE. 

Some of the most devoted preachers 
of the gospel today, not only discover in 
their scientific study, illustrations of 
theological truth, but are convinced as 
the result of such study, that neither 
truth nor life have anything to fear 
from the most thorough investigation 
and the most resolute thinking and in 
fact are of the firm conviction that truth 
and life invite the most scrutinous inves- 
tigation. Let me refer to one illustra- 
tion; The historical study of the Bible 
was for a long time a problem and of dis- 
repute to science, but as the result of the 
scientific spirit working in the field of 
Biblical Literature the scientific inves- 
tigation has become a force of strength 
to the history of the Bible rather than a 
foe. 

Very recently I read of a representa- 
tive of the China Inland mission, con- 
sidered the most intensely evangelical 
of all modern missions, who has discov- 
ered that his m.ost effective implement 
in his religious work is science and to 

163 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

the extent that he employes the service 
of a biological and electrical laboratory. 
Thus proving that the experiments of 
science, are a force of strength to the 
Bible, rather than a foe. Thanks be to 
God, that that, which the evil one in- 
tended for evil, God has made a means 
of the highest good and glory. 



164 



CHAPTER V. 

The Bible: — Its Historical Romance 

and Genealogy, or Where did 

We Get It. 

How frequently is the question asked 
of the Christian, "Is the Bible which we 
now possess of a truth the Word of 
God?" and we reply that it is. A second 
question is asked, "How do you know 
that it is ? Can you prove it ?'' I well re- 
member walking along Clark Street in 
Chicago one Sunday afternoon, carry- 
ing a Bible under my arm, when my at- 
tention was called to a large number of 
men, who were listening to a man who 
was making a speech. Walking towards 
them, I pushed my way through the 
crowd, until I stood right under the 
speakers nose and then I opened my 
ears and listened. I soon found out that 
he was introducing a new system of re- 

165 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

ligion, which he called Koreshanity, 
based on a social order. As I listened, 
I heard such remarks as these, "There 
is no such thing as Christianity today; 
once there was and its founder was a 
man named Jesus Christ, who had 
twelve disciples, who were followers of 
Him and who were Christians, but nine- 
teen hundred years ago, Jesus Christ 
died and that was the last of Him. A 
few years later his diciples also died and 
with them Christianity died and there 
has been no such thing since." I hadn't 
listened very long until every drop of 
blood was tingling in my body and I 
felt as though I would have liked to 
have wiped the streets of Chicago with 
him, (of course I didn't dare to try to 
do it.) Now, that is what we call relig- 
ious zeal and it is alright to feel that 
way, but don't ever try to do such a 
thing. Finally I could stand it no long- 
er and so I said to him, "Say mister, will 
you let me occupy that box a few min- 
utes?" He looked at me, then he said: 

166 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

"what do you want it for?" so I replied: 
"I just want to speak a word in favor of 
Christ and Christianity which you have 
been denying." Then he answered ''No, 
I've got the platform." And then turn- 
ing to the crowd and smiling said: "Say 
men; here is a fellow with a book under 
his arm, I wonder what it is." Of 
course I answered, "why that's a Bible." 
"A what?" he asked, what kind of a 
book is that?" "Why" I said; "in other 
words it's the Word of God." And then 
he asked a double question, which com- 
pletely floored me, "How do you know 
that it is? can you prove it?" Of course 
I was able to speak to him of its trans- 
forming power and how, "If any man be 
in Christ he is a new creature," and how, 
"If any man will do His Will he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of 
God or whether I speak of myself." and 
other such Scripture passages, but he 
just laughed at me and said: "I've 
heard fellows like you talk that way be- 
fore, but tell me, "Where did the Bible 

167 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

come from?" I want to confess to you 
that I was completely stumped, but, if I 
had had at that time the evidence con- 
tained in this address, I could have 
knocked that fellow completely off his 
feet and have carried the crowd for God. 
Quite humiliated, I went to my room 
with my mind bent on finding out, 
where we got the Bible from, and ever 
since the evidence of the History of the 
Bible has been to me a means of great 
blessing and particularly the deepening 
of my faith in the Bible. I suppose 
there are comparatively few in our 
churches, but who hold in deepest rev- 
erance the Bible as the best of all books. 
No doubt many of us can say with 
Matthias of Janow," "From my youth 
up, whether on a journey or at home, on 
business or at leisure, never was my Bi- 
ble out of my sight. My soul was as it 
were espoused to it. In every sorrow in 
every persecution, I ever betook me to 
my Bible, which walked with me as my 
betrothed. And when I saw others car- 

168 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

rying about the relics and bones of 
saints, I, for my part, chose to myself 
the Bible, my elect, my comrade in all 
life's journey." The Bible is the one 
book to which we go for comfort, when 
we feel downhearted and distressed. It 
is the one book that our fathers held in 
reverence and which moulded and 
shaped their lives and conduct and 
which gave them such boldness in the 
hour of death. With their hands clasped 
tightly about its covers, we watched 
them as peacefully and joyfully, they 
closed their eyes in death, while the 
spirit passed out to meet the God who 
gave it. And it is because of the deep 
reverence they held for the Word of 
God that men and women have taken 
their lives in their hands and have gone 
forth to the remotest places of the earth 
to make known its pages and sealing 
their testimony with their life blood. 
And yet, notwithstanding the reverence 
with which the Bible is held, we should 
not rest contented until we are assured 

169 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

that the Book upon which we build our 
Eternal Hope, is beyond all reasonable 
doubt, the true record of God's Revela- 
tion to inspired men. 

Now the question before us is: — Can 
this be proven? Can the Bible as we 
have it today, be traced back to its orig- 
inal sources ? To trace the story of our 
Bible from the days when the first of 
the inspired books were written by god- 
ly men, divinely chosen for the work, 
down through the stormy revolutions of 
sixty centuries, to the times when we 
enjoy the priceless blessing of a perfect 
Bible, is a recital without a paralell in 
the whole range of secular or sacred 
literature. It holds us with a spell more 
powerful than that of any other narra- 
tive known to the world. Step by step, 
down through the ages, we trace the 
gradual unfolding of God's message to 
men, ever becoming clearer and more 
splendid as the centuries roll on. 
Through many sources, Hebrew, Sy- 
riac, Greek, Latin and Anglo-Saxon, the 

170 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

Sacred Word has flowed unceasingly 
onward, and today we can trace it 
through all these deep cut channels, and 
rest assured that the Bible as we have it 
today, so far as its contents are con- 
cerned, is the same as existed in the 
days of Christ and His Apostles and as 
existed when they left the hands of the 
inspired writers. Surely that is some- 
thing worth knowing, it is indeed. 

In speaking of the origin of the Bible, 
the question is frequently asked, can the 
original manuscripts of the Bible be 
produced? In reply we answer, no, we 
have not in our hands today the first or 
original manuscripts of the Bible. And 
why not? because they are lost and as 
yet have not been found, but who can 
tell, but that God may not some day re- 
veal them if they exist at all. Now the 
question arises: How trace the Bible to 
its original source without the original 
manuscripts? To do this is something 
which at first almost seems impossible, 
but when we get on the track it is not as 

171 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

difficult as at first thought to be. To 
use a borrowed sentence from Dr. James 
M. Gray "A little child can ascend the 
highest flight of stairs by taking one 
step at a time'' and so by taking one 
step at a time we can trace the Bible as 
we now have it back to its original 
source. 

The Steps in Biblical History. 

Our first step in Biblical history is 
through the printed page. We have in 
our possession today, printed copies of 
the Bible which date back to the middle 
of the fifteenth century, about 1450 A. 
D. the time when the first copy of the 
Bible was printed. It is most worthy of 
note, that with the invention of printing 
about the first work that was ever done, 
was to print copies of the Latin Bible, 
and was done by Johannes Gutenberg 
and Johannes Faust in the year 1449. In 
the library of Exeter College at Oxford 
there is a copy of the Old Testament in 
Hebrew, complete, and was printed at 

172 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

Soncino, Italy and bearing the date of 
1448. In the Royal Library at Berlin 
there is another copy of the Old Testa- 
ment in Hebrew and was published at 
Brescia, Italy in 1494. It was this copy 
that Luther used in his German trans- 
lation. Then there are numerous cop- 
ies of the New Testament in Greek and 
Latin and Dated 1514, and 1516. One 
of these is the New Testament of Eras- 
mus and was printed by Frobenius in 
Basel in 1516, while several more are 
written in Latin and dated A. D. 15 14. 
By carefully examining these printed 
copies of the Bible, we find that they are 
identical with the printed copies which 
we possess today, in the year of our 
Lord, 1910. Thus, in the first step in 
Biblical history, we have traced the Bi- 
ble back to the middle of the fifteenth 
century. Let us now go back still further 
and we can trace it to the beginning of 
the fourth century. 

Now, while we have no original manu- 
scripts of the books of our Bible, we 

173 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

have several copies of the originals, 
which do not in the least impair the ac- 
curacy of the Bible even as one has said. 
"It is doubtful if we have the original 
manuscripts of Carlyle's "French Revo- 
lution'' and yet no one will doubt but 
that we have the book as Carlyle wrote 
it. Again, Heroditus is the most ancient 
and in many respects the most impor- 
tant of the classic historians and yet it 
is said that of his great work, there are 
known to critics in all, about fifteen 
manuscript copies and most of these are 
of more recent date than A. D. 1450, al- 
though he flourished about 450 B. C. 
and yet no one would doubt but what 
they are the real works of Herodotus. 
The earliest copy of Homer that we 
have dates from the thirteenth century, 
A. D. and he lived about the ninth cen- 
tury, B. C. 

In all there are but from ten to twen- 
ty copies of any of the ancient classics 
and these are considered proof of their 
genuineness and authenticity. As for 

174 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

the manuscript copies of the Bible, 
there are over two thousand manuscript 
copies of the Bible and dating from the 
fourth to the fifteenth century A. D. and 
which were carefully examined for the 
preparation of our present Revised Ver- 
sion. Of course, some of these manu- 
scripts are only portions of the Scrip- 
tures, but when put together they furn- 
ish the full text of the Bible and some of 
them contain the entire New Testa- 
ment. Now then, if ten to twenty cop- 
ies of the ancient classics are sufficient 
to assure an authentic work, surely by 
comparing two thousand copies or more 
of the original manuscripts of the Bible, 
we can tell with great precision just 
what the sacred text was. Now I 
would not want anyone to think that 
two thousand were the limited number 
of Biblical manuscripts, for the suceed- 
ing centuries has greatly increased the 
number, until it has been estimated by 
the distinguished Orientalist, Dr. Mar- 
vin R. Vincent that no less than 3,829 

175 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

manuscripts have been discovered and 
catalogued. These were gathered from 
many lands: From Turkey, Egypt, the 
Aegean, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, ancient 
Macedonia, from Palestine, Africa and 
the Sinaitic Peninsula and are now pre- 
served in the world's great libraraies. 

Before going any farther, it might be 
well to define both a Manuscript and a 
Version. A manuscript is a copy of the 
Bible in the original tongue, while a ver- 
sion is a copy in some other language. 
'For instance, a manuscript of the Old 
Testament was always written in He- 
brew and a manuscript of the New Tes- 
tament in Greek. 

As has already been stated, the known 
manuscripts of today, vary in date from 
the fourth to the fifteenth century A. D., 
which naturally causes another question 
to arise : why do they not date back far- 
ther than the fourth century? The rea- 
son is this : Eusebius tells us that in the 
year 302 A. D., the emperor Diocletian, 
ordered that all the sacred books should 

176 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

be burned with the Christian churches, 
with the exception of a very few copies. 
He tells us furthermore that with the 
authority of the Emperor Constantine, 
he reproduced some fifty copies of the 
sacred Scriptures for the churches of 
Constantinople in the year 303 A. D. 
This will no doubt account for the large 
increase of manuscript copies, from that 
time on. 

Another interesting fact of note is: 
"How to determine the age of a manu- 
sript?" There are many ways in which 
the age of a manuscript can be found, 
for instance: the form of letters used in 
writing; the way the words are joined 
together; flowers or ornamentation of 
the first letter; also the material on 
which the manuscript is written. The 
earliest manuscripts of the New Testa- 
ment books were written on papyrus, a 
fragile material which was soon ruined 
by handling and was preserved only un- 
der favorable conditions in a dry clim- 
ate like that of Egypt. Papyrus was used 

177 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

until the beginning of the fourth cen- 
tury, when it gave way to vellum. The 
fifty copies of Eusebius, made for the 
churches of Constantinople already re- 
ferred to, were written on vellum and 
when new vellum became too costly for 
the transcriber, the writing was often 
scraped away so as to admit the substi- 
tution of another work, hence it was 
called a Palimpsist, from a Greek word 
meaning scraped again. 

Now, if we should study a Greek 
manuscript and find that all the letters 
were capital letters and that the words 
were all joined together in lines without 
any divisions, we may conclude that it 
is a manuscript of a very great age. 
These manuscripts written in this style, 
are called "Uncial Manuscripts" and 
date upto the tenth century, but if writ- 
ten with a flowing hand, similar to our 
style of writing today, they are called 
"Cursive Manuscripts" and we may be 
sure about it, they are of more recent 
date, being in use until the invention of 

178 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

printing. The number of Uncial Manu- 
scripts now known of the whole part of 
the Greek Testament, is given as one 
hundred and fifty-six, while the number 
of Cursive manuscripts is given as two 
thousand five hundred and eigthy-four. 
(Angus Bible Hand Book.) 

The Three Oldest Manuscript Bibles. 

Let me now speak of the three oldest 
manuscript Bibles in existence. The 
first is called the "VATICAN/' Rome 
has long been noted for its treasure, 
houses and its palaces of antiquity. The 
famous St. Peter's church, the palace of 
the Caesars, the house of Nero, and the 
Collesium, where the early Christians 
were flung to the wild beasts, rather 
than deny Jesus Christ as their Lord 
and Saviour, but the greatest treasure 
which Rome possesses, is the "Vatican 
Manuscript," known as "Codex B," the 
oldest Bible in existence today, dating 
back to the fourth centurv A. D. This old 
manuscript Bible was placed in the \'at- 

179 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

ican library by Pope Nicolas V, in A. D. 
1448, and contains the Old Testament 
in Greek with the exception of a few lost 
pages, and the New Testament com- 
plete, to Hebrews chapter fourteen. It 
also includes the General Epistles, but 
omits I and 2 Timothy, Philemon, and 
the Book of Revelation. It is written on 
very fine vellum, in a small elegant 
square letter, three columns on a page 
so that in opening the volume anywhere 
in the New Testament, six columns of 
well formed letters are presented to the 
eye. Each column for the most part, 
contains forty-two lines, and each line 
sixteen or eighteen letters. According 
to the late Professor C. E. Stowe of 
Hartford, Conn., the Vatican as origin- 
ally written, had neither ornamented 
capital letters, punctuation, accents or 
anything of the kind, though some have 
been added by later hands. Its value as 
an authority is very high, and before the 
beginning of the present century it had 
been three times used for printed ed- 

180 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

itions of the Greek Testament. The 
Papal authorities have been very jeal- 
ous guardians of the manuscript, and 
most persons capable of examining it 
aright have been refused access to it. 
After the failure of several, Dr. Tregel- 
les, one of the most eminent students of 
textual criticism, made an attempt, but 
he says they v^ould not let him open the 
volume without first searching his pock- 
ets, and depriving him of pens and ink 
and paper. The two priests set to 
watch him, would try to distract his at- 
tention if he seemed too intent on any 
passage, and if he studied any part of it 
too long, they would snatch away the 
book. However, it has of late years be- 
come easily accessible, through the ex- 
cellent fac-similes made by order of 
Pope Pius IX' which may be seen in our 
chief public libraries (Prof. J. P. 
Smyth). 

The second oldest manuscript of the 
Bible in existence today is the "SINA- 
ITICUS," and also dates back to the 

181 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

fourth century A. D. It is not neces- 
sary to describe this manuscript, since 
being of the same date, it clearly resem- 
bles the Vatican, other than to state that 
it contains the Old Testament in Greek 
and also the whole of the New Testa- 
ment. It also has in it an Epistle of Bar- 
nabas, and the Shepherd of Hermas in 
part. The discovery of this manuscript 
is most interestingly romantic and is 
now the treasure of the St. Petersburg 
library in Russia. One day, many years 
ago, a noted scholar, going by the way 
of Cairo, came to the base of Mount 
Sinai, that same Sinai on which Moses 
received his revelation. The convent of 
St. Catherine is there, and the only en- 
trance is through a door forty feet from 
the ground. On arrival the Bedouins 
gave shrill cries and fired a volley of 
musketry, as a signal to the monks 
within. After much parleying this 
scholar was drawn up by a rope and giv- 
en free access to the library. His prac- 
ticed eye discovered that the library was 

182 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

rich in old manuscripts and his eye final- 
ly fell on a waste basket full of old 
parchments, which were to serve as 
kindling for a fire. But they were to 
start another kind of fire, a fire that 
would kindle a blaze of wonder around 
the whole world. He burst out into an 
exclamation of joy and his hands trem- 
bled with joyful emotion. This aroused 
the suspicion of his watchful compan- 
ions and though he persuaded and per- 
suaded they would not allow him to 
have but forty-three leaves. He took 
these to his cell and found that they 
contained parts of Chronicles, Nehe- 
miah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations. He 
was not able to get the rest in any way. 
The monks saw that they had in their 
possession a great treasure. We can im- 
agine the feelings of this man when he 
had to depart with only the forty-three 
leaves. Many years passed. This scholar 
tried to secure the manuscript through 
a friend in Egypt, who was physician to 
the viceroy, but the reply was: "The 

183 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

monks of the convent have learned the 
value of these sheets of parchment 
since your departure, and will not part 
with them at any price." He, however, 
refused to give up hope and went again 
to the convent. He was warmly wel- 
comed by the brotherhood, but not a 
trace of the coveted sheets could be 
found, and though he felt that some- 
where those precious pages were hid, he 
had to return to Europe unrewarded. 
Finally, after many years of weariness, 
and difficulties, and disappointments, he 
secured permission from the Czar of 
Russia. The convent being under the 
Greek church, this gave him entrance, 
and fifteen years after the first visit he 
arrived again at the convent. He was 
shown the utmost courtesy, saw many 
old and valuable books, but the 
one he wanted was not to be 
found. Denials of its existence were 
stoutly made and he came to the conclu- 
sion that it had either been destroyed or 
removed to another place. He gave or- 

184 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

ders for his camels to be gotten ready to 
start within three days, but that after- 
noon he took a walk with the steward 
of the convent, and as they talked of 
their studies, and entered inio the con- 
vent, the steward said: "I too nave been 
reading the Septuagint lately." He went 
to a corner of his cell and brought out a 
bulky volume wrapped in red cloth, and 
put it in the scholar's hands. He opened 
it, and what was his surprise to find he 
held there the very thing he had 
searched for these many years. Having 
learned his lesson from the previous ex- 
perience, he concealed his feelings as 
best he could and asked permission to 
take it to his cell and examine it. This 
was granted, and once in his cell he gave 
way to his expressions of joy. "I knew," 
he said, "that I held in my hands the 
most precious biblical treasure in exist- 
ence, a document whose age and import- 
ance exceeded any manuscript I had ex- 
amined during twenty 3^ears study of 
the subject. I cannot recall all the emo- 

185 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

tions I felt in that exciting moment 
with such a diamond in my possession." 
He did not sleep that night. Early next 
morning he applied to take it to Cairo to 
have it copied in full. This was finally 
granted and within two months, with 
incredible toil, the work was done. This 
man's name was Lobegott F. C. Tisch- 
endorf, and to him, perhaps more than 
to any other man, we owe the assurance 
of having the correct text of our Bible. 
This *'Codex Sinaiticus," or manu- 
script of Sinai, takes us back almost 
within earshot of the men who walked 
and talked with Jesus. It was discov- 
ered about 1859, and is now in the im- 
perial library at St. Petersburg, and is 
one of the great treasures of the world. 
(Dr. Milnor Wilbur.) 

The third manuscript is called the 
"ALEXANDRIAN," or Codex A, and 
dates back to the middle of the fifth cen- 
tury, say 450 A. D. This treasure is in 
the British Museum at London, Eng- 
land. It contains the whole of the Old 

186 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

Testament, and the New Testament in 
Greek, with the exception of a few parts 
and is written very much like the other 
two, but with only two columns to a 
page, showing it is of a slightly later 
date. In the year 1628, Cyril Lunar, 
a patriarch of Constantinople, who for- 
merly held the same office at Alexan- 
dria in Egypt, and who was so much in- 
clined towards Protestanism that he 
made an abortive attempt to reform the 
Greek church on the model of Galvan- 
ism at Geneva, sent to England by Sir 
Thomas Roe, the English ambassador 
in Turkey, a magnificent Greek manu- 
script of the whole Bible, as a present to 
King Charles I. It was kept in the 
king's library till 1753 when on the for- 
mation of the British museum, it was 
transferred to that institution, in the ar- 
chives of which it is most carefully pre- 
served. 

Now, summing up, in tracing the his- 
torical romance of the Bible, in the first 
step, through the printed page, we trac- 

187 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

ed it to the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, about 1450, and now, through the 
manuscripts, we trace it to the begin- 
ning of the fourth century, about 301 A. 
D., and upon careful comparison, we 
find that the Bible of the fourth century 
and the Bible of the twentieth century 
is identically one and the same. 

Ancient Versions and the Works o£ the 

Fathers. 

In our last division, from the sources 
of the printed page and ancient manu- 
scripts, we have traced the historical 
romance of the Bible thus far, to the be- 
ginning of the fourth century. Now 
how shall we proceed? By a two fold 
source, the use of "Ancient Versions 
and the Works of the Fathers'' and bv 
the employment of these agencies, we 
shall be able to trace the New Testa- 
ment to its original source, the time 
when it left the hands of the inspired 
apostles who wrote it, and the Old Tes- 
tament, to at least 285 B. C. 

188 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

First, let us continue our enquiry by 
the use of the Ancient Versions. At the 
time the Vatican manuscript was pre- 
pared, which dates back to tne begin- 
ning of the fourth century, there were a 
number of versions of the Bit)le m ex- 
istence, among which were the ''Old 
Latin and the Syriac" which were in 
common use among the churches. Of 
these two versions, neither the place, 
nor the name of the translators are 
known, but they are not essential. It is 
sufficient to know that they were in ex- 
istence and in use at this time. The old- 
est of the two is the Syriac, which was 
also known as the Peshito, the ''simple" 
or "plain" version, and was written 
about the middle of the second century, 
or 150 A. D. The Syriac was in use even 
in the ninth and tenth centuries, and is 
refererd to in the commentaries of Eph- 
raim the Syrian, in the fourth century, 
and was already at that time an old 
book. This ancient version seems to 
have been a very important book, and 

189 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

was regarded by the people of the East- 
ern churches with greatest respect and 
was received as an authorative work. 
Several versions were made from the 
Syriac, among which were the Arabic, 
the Persian, and the Armenian, and 
when the Syrian church became divided 
and split into several opposing sects, all 
received this version, as of authority 
and used it in their public worship. The 
fact that it was a translation of many 
original manuscripts and careful copies 
of original manuscripts gave it an au- 
thority almost equal to the originals 
themselves. 

The most important and valuable 
feature of this version is the fact that it 
contains all the books of the New Tes- 
tament with the exception of 2 Peter, 
the second and third Epistles of John, 
the Epistle of Jude, and the book of 
Revelation, and although it omits these 
five books, it does not include any other 
book, which is not found in our New 
Testament. 

190 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

Now let US look at the old Latin Ver- 
sion. Whereas the Syriac was made for 
the Eastern churches, the Old Latin 
was made for the Western churches. 
The authority of this version, is seen in 
the fact that it was from the Old Latin 
that St. Jerome made his Latin Vulgate, 
which has ever since been the Bible au- 
thority of the Roman church, and is still 
unto this day. The date of the Old 
Latin version is a little uncertain, but 
its date must be about the middle of the 
second century for TertuUian, who was 
born in 150 A. D., refers to it in his 
writings, so it certainly was in existence 
in his time. Concerning the books of the 
New Testament, it contains them all 
with the exception of three, ttie Epistle 
of Hebrew, James and Second Peter. 
Comparing it with the Syriac, we find 
that with the exception of Second Peter, 
these two versions constitute the en- 
tire New Testament, as we have it to- 
day, this 17th day of August, in the year 
of our Lord, 1909. What a remarkable 

191 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

testimony, to the history of our Bible. 
Thus, with the aid of the Syriac and the 
Old Latin versions we have been able to 
trace the New Testament back to 150 
A. D. Now another question arises, 
how shall we bridge the gap from 150 
A. D. to the time of the apostles them- 
selves, the human instruments of God 
in writing the New Testament? The 
Apostle John, who was the last of the 
apostles, died in the year 100 A. D., so 
this leaves us only fifty years to cover 
before we reach the time of the apostles 
themselves ; and this we do by the use of 
the Works of the Fathers. The Works of 
the Fathers may be divided into two 
classes. First, men who were alive be- 
fore the last of the apostles passed away 
and who are known to us as the "Apos- 
tolic Fathers ;" the second class are men 
who were alive, when other men were 
alive, who had both heard the apostles 
and had seen and conversed with them 
concerning the life and works of our 
Lord, and their own sacred writings, 

192 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

these men are called the "Ancient 
Fathers" and of this class I will speak 
first. 

Of the Ancient Fathers, let me speak 
of three very eminent men, who flour- 
ished during the second century, and 
the early part of the third. The first of 
these is Tertullian, who was born at 
Carthage in Africa, about 150 A. D. and 
died 220 A. D. His father was a centur- 
ion in the troops which served under the 
Proconsul of Africa. He himself was at 
first a heathen man, and one of very 
loose manners, as he himself owns in 
various parts of his own works, but af- 
terwards he embraced the Christian re- 
ligion, and, being a scholarly lawyer, he 
vigorously used his abilities in the cause 
of Christianity. Tertullian was the first 
Latin writer among the Fathers, and 
was the first to introduce the phrase 
"New Testament." In his practice of 
law, Tertullian made a constant use of 
the Scriptures, ascribing the four gos- 
pels to Matthew, to Mark, to Luke and 

193 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

to John, and in the examinations of his 
writings it has been found that he 
makes no less than 2,500 references to 
the New Testament. 

The second of the Ancient Fathers is 
Justin, surnamed the Martyr. Justin 
was one of the earliest of Fathers, and 
was born at Neapolis, the ancient Sich- 
em of Samaria. He was brought up in 
the Pagan religion, and after studying 
in Egypt, embraced the Platonic system 
and in the year 132 A. D. he was con- 
verted to Christianity. Justin was a 
profound philosopher. On one occasion 
he visited Rome, where he wrote against 
the heresy of Marcion, and presented 
his first "Apology" for the Christian re- 
ligion to the Emperor Trajan, who in 
consequence of it adopted milder meas- 
ures. On another occasion, he present- 
ed another "Apology" for Christianity, 
to Marcus Antonius Philosophus, and 
at the instigation of Crescens, he was ar- 
rested and beheaded 165 A. D. Among 
the writings of Justin we find 387 quo- 

194 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

tations from the New Testament, and 
divided as follows: From the Gospels, 
there are two hundred and sixty-seven; 
from the Books of Acts, ten; from the 
Pauline Epistles, forty-three; from the 
General Epistles, there are sixty-three, 
and from the Book of Revelation, 
three. Thus we see in his writings, Jus- 
tin quotes from the entire New Testa- 
ment, thus proving they existed before 
his day. 

The third of the ancient Fathers, is 
Irenaus. He was born about 130 A. D. 
in Asia Minor, and was for some time a 
priest in the church at Lyons, but after 
the martyrdom of Ponthenus in 174, he 
succeeded him to the office of Bishopric 
and was himself finally beheaded at 
Lyons by Severus, in the year 202. In 
his writings we find not less than 1,819 
quotations from the New Testament. 

Now, then, these three men living 
during the second and third centuries, 
from 103 to 220 A. D. together, quote 
from the New Testament 4,706 times. 

195 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Surely this is proof enough that the 
New Testament existed in their days 
and as early as 103 A. D. 

So much for the Ancient Fathers. 
Now let us refer to two of the Apostolic 
Fathers, men acquainted with the Apos- 
tles themselves. The first of these is 
"Clement of Rome/' who was a compan- 
ion of the Apostle Paul, and who is 
spoken of by Paul in Philippians 4. 3. It 
is thought that Clement of Rome was a 
convert of Paul's and that he later be- 
came one of the Bishops of Rome. Liv- 
ing at the time that he did, and occupy- 
ing the position that he did among the 
churches, he could not but have been 
acquainted with some of the Apostles. 
Among his writings, some of which are 
still preserved to us, is an epistle which 
he wrote to the Corinthians, and which 
is filled with references to the New Tes- 
tament, alluding to the words of Peter, 
James, Luke and John, the Epistles to 
the Romans, Corinthians, Thessalon- 
ians, Ephesians, Timothy, Titus, He- 

196 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

brews, also the Books of Acts, James 
and Peter. Clement died about 95 A. D. 
and we see that the New Testament was 
in existence in his day, or he could never 
have quoted from it. 

The other Apostolic Father to which 
I wish to refer is "Polycarp," the disci- 
ple of the Apostle John. He was born 
in the year 70 A. D. and suffered mar- 
tyrdom in 156 A. D., being burned alive 
for his testimony to Jesus Christ. When 
brought before the Roman Proconsul at 
Smyrna and given an opportunity to re- 
cant his faith in Jesus Christ, while the 
fire was being prepared which was to 
burn his body, and being urged by the 
judge to curse Christ and live, Polycarp 
nobly answered: "Eighty and six years 
have I served Him and he did me no 
wrong. How then, can I blaspheme my 
King and Saviour?" Among the several 
epistles which Polycarp wrote to the 
churches, is one which still exists, his 
epistle to the church at Phillipi, and al- 
though a short epistle, it is full of the 

197 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

teachings of the New Testament, both 
from the Gospels and the Epistles, and 
which are quoted with full satisfaction, 
as parts of Divine revelation. One thing 
worthy of note is that there is not the 
slightest intimation given throughout, 
of there being any matter of faith, not 
included in the inspired records. On the 
contrary, he distinctly says, "The 
blessed and renowned Paul did, with all 
exactness and soundness, teach the 
words of truth; and being gone from 
you wrote an epistle to you, into which 
if you look you will be able to edify 
yourselves in the faith which has been 
delivered unto you." 

Thus we find the books of the New 
Testament, as we have them today, ex- 
isted in the days of the first century, and 
have thus traced them back to the hands 
of the sacred writers themselves. 

Another question naturally arises: 
What was the Bible used in the days of 
Christ and His Apostles? All we have 
to do to decide this question, is but to 

198 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

read the New Testament itself, and see 
how frequently does Christ quote from 
the Old Testament. In the very begin- 
ning of His public ministry, right after 
the temptation in the wilderness, we 
read how that Jesus came to Nazareth, 
the place of His birth, and it being the 
Sabbath day. He went into the syna- 
gogue and stood up to read. "And there 
was delivered unto Him the book of the 
Prophet Esaias. And when he had 
opened the book. He found the place 
where it was written: 'The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me, because He hath an- 
nointed me to preach the gospel to the 
poor; He hath sent me to heal the 
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance 
to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that 
are bruised, to preach the acceptable 
year of the Lord.' And He closed the 
book and gave it again to the minister, 
and sat down. And the eyes of all them 
that were in the synagogue were fast- 
ened on Him. And He began to say 

199 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

unto them, 'This year is this Scripture 
fulfilled in your ears/ " Luke 4. 17-21. 
Now, compare this passage with Isaiah 
61. 1-2; in the Old Testament, and we 
find that they are identical; thus prov- 
ing that Jesus was acquainted with the 
Old Testament. Just one more passage 
showing Christ's acquaintance with the 
Old Testament Scriptures will suffice. 
In Luke 24. 2j, speaking to some of His 
disciples who were perplexed about His 
resurrection, we read: ''And beginning 
at Moses and all the prophets, He ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scriptures 
the things concerning Himself." The 
Bible of Christ was the Old Testament. 
Concerning the acquaintance of the 
Apostles with the Old Testament 
Scriptures, we find, that every book of 
the New Testament, contains a large 
number of quotations, and references 
from the Old Testament. Indeed, it is 
estimated by "Angus Bible Handbook'' 
that there are two hundred and sixty- 
three direct quotations, and three hun- 

200 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

dred and seventy-six references, making 
in all six hundred and thirty-nine, and 
thus showing that the Bible ol Christ 
and his Apostles, was the Old Testa- 
ment. 

But, suppose we go back before the 
time of Christ's ministry upon earth, 
and see if we can get further evidence of 
the existence of the Old Testament. 
Among the very earliest translations of 
the Old Testament is the Septuagint 
Version. The Septuagint Version was 
a translation from the original Hebrew 
into the Greek, and was maJe at Alex- 
andria in Egypt, the work begininng 
285 B. C. and completed about 130 B. C. 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, 
when forming a library at a great ex- 
pense was advised by Demetrius Phal- 
ereus to apply to the Jewish high priest, 
Eleazer, for a copy of the book contain- 
ing the Jewish laws. Having been a 
great friend and benefactor of the Jews, 
he had no difficulty in obtaining this. He 
then requested Eleazar to send him 

201 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

learned scribes, for the purpose of trans- 
lating the books into Greek. Seventy- 
two interpreters were selected and sent, 
six out of each tribe of Israel. Having 
been dispatched accordingly with a 
magnificent copy of the law, they were 
received and entertained by the king 
for several days with great respect and 
liberality. Demetrius led them to an isl- 
and, where they were lodged. The 
translation was finished in seventy-two 
days, having been written down by 
Demetrius, piece by piece, as agreed 
upon by mutual consultation. It was 
then publicly read to a number of Jews, 
whom Demetrius had summoned to- 
gether. They approved of it, and impre- 
cations were uttered against anyone 
who should alter it. The Jews request- 
ed to take copies of it for their use, 
and it was carefully preserved by com- 
mand of the king. The interpreters were 
then sent home loaded with presents. 
(The Biblical Reason Why). In the 
next division will be stated the reason 



202 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

the translation into Greek was made. 

The Septuagint being in common use, 
it was undoubtedly the Bible used by- 
Christ and His Apostles. Now, what 
about the originals from which the Sep- 
tuagint was made? As has already 
been stated, they are not to be found, 
and yet they are not essentially 
necessary in this romantic history, 
since we have the translations of the 
Septuagint and other versions which 
were made from the original Hebrew 
Old Testament, and also the original 
Greek New Testament. 

It is but one step further from the 
Septuagint, unto the formation of the 
Old Testament Canon, the compiling of 
the books themselves. While we do not 
possess the original manuscripts of the 
Old Testament, yet we have reference 
to them in the Old Testament iself, and 
of their compilation for their present 
formation. Dr. Leach in his "Our Bible'' 
writes: In the eighth chapter of the 
Book of Nehemiah, there is a marvelous 

203 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

description of the reading of the law, 
which is worthy of careful attention. 

In a broad, open space, before one of 
the gates of Jerusalem, there is an im- 
mense congregation. On a pulpit of 
wood, Ezra stands up to read the law of 
God to the newly returned exiles. As- 
sisted by the chief men, he translates 
and expounds the Word of the Lord. 
Day after day this continues. The ef- 
fect of this is that a few weeks later, all 
the people confess their sins, and enter 
into a solemn promise to keep and ob- 
serve the Law. 

This is made all the more impressive, 
by the fact that the priests, the Levites, 
and the chief men of the tribes, solemn- 
ly sign their names on a parchment roll, 
and seal it as a sacred document to wit- 
ness what they have done. (Nehemiah 
8. 9.) The Jews tell us that the names on 
the list thus made formed the first mem- 
bers of the "Great Synagogue." The 
chief work of the synagogue, which was 
a most important body, was to collect, 

204 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

select and preserve to the world all the 
manuscripts which compose the Hebrew 
Scriptures. Ezra was the first president 
and at different times it had as mem- 
bers such men as Daniel, Haggai, Zach- 
ariah, Malachi, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah. 
It is supposed to have ceased about the 
year 300 B. C. 

From the day when Ezra read the He- 
brew Scriptures, and the solemn coven- 
ant was made by the people, as recorded 
in Nehemiah, to the day when the Sep- 
tuagint was made, there is a space of 
time of only about one hundred and 
sixty years. The reading of the law 
took place about 445 B. C. and the Sep- 
tuagint was completed about 285 B. C. 
This is but a short interval. The two 
dates are sufficiently near for us to as- 
sume that the men who made the Greek 
Version, used the best known manu- 
scripts, many of them, no doubt, the ac- 
tual original documents bearing the 
signatures of their inspired authors. 

Thus, step by step, through the vari- 

205 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

ous resources, we have traced the his- 
tory of the Bible to its original source. 
By the use of printed Bibles, we traced 
it back to the fifteenth century A. D., 
then through the ancient manuscripts, 
back to the beginning of the fourth cen- 
tury, through the Syriac and the Old 
Latin Versions to the middle of the sec- 
ond century, and by the writings of the 
Fathers in the case of the New Testa- 
ment, to the time when it left the hands 
of the Apostles themselves. Then we 
saw that the Old Testament was in ex- 
istence in the days of Christ and His 
Apostles, and was the Bible that was 
used by them; then through the Septu- 
agint Version, back to 285 B. C. and 
through the work of the Great Syna- 
gogue, we see them collecting the manu- 
scripts for the formation of the Old Tes- 
tament Canon, in 445 B. C. What sat- 
isfaction it should be to the heart of the 
believer; how confirming of his faith to 
be thus able to trace the history of the 
Bible, and to know that the Bible as we 

206 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

have it today, is identically the same as 
used by Christ and His Apostles, and as 
it left the hands of the inspired writers. 

In the year 1488, the first complete 
printed Hebrew Bible appeared, and 
among the manuscripts collected for 
this purpose, there is no divergence of 
text, so we shall have to go back beyond 
the printed text, to the manuscripts 
which preceded it and trace back as far 
as we may, the transmsision of the sac- 
red text, from age to age, by the labour 
of the copyists. Toward the close of the 
first century, a class of rabbins, called 
the Massoretes, are known to have ex- 
isted, and who made it their business to 
collect and examine manuscripts, with 
a view to a preparation of an accepted 
text of the Old Testament. Their work 
was continued until the close of the 
tenth century. 

"There are in Hebrew manuscripts 
and our printed Bibles curious indica- 
tions of the exact fidelity with which the 
original manuscripts were reproduced. 

207 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Some words have odd marks over them 
not understood, perhaps originating in 
an accidental splutter of the pen, but 
faithfully repeated in every copy. Some- 
times we find a letter almost double tht 
ordinary size, and sometimes one un- 
usually small — again, possibly a perpet- 
uation of mere accident. Sometimes a 
letter is placed above the line. The 
books have notes appended, stating 
such points as the number of words and 
the middle word. In addition to what 
appears in our Bibles, there are huge 
collections of Massoretic notes, dealing 
with such matters as how often each let- 
ter of the Hebrew alphabet occurs in the 
Old Testament, and how many verses 
contain all the letters of the alphabet. 
All this fills us with amazement and 
with thankfulness for the microscopic 
accuracy with which these men did their 
work of preserving the sacred text. So 
careful were the Massoretes to secure 
the true text and preserve it from cor- 
ruption, that they destroyed all the ex- 

208 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

isting manuscripts save their own prop- 
erties, so that there might not be the 
possibility of defilement." (Angus Bible 
Hand Book.) 

But was the same care that marked 
the work of the Massoretes, employed 
previous to their work which began in 
the first century? Originally the He- 
brew text was written without divisions 
into chapters and verses, and earlier 
still, without divisions into words (this 
was the work of the Massoretes) and 
yet, even in that early age, the same pre- 
cision was used as later. Josephus as- 
serts that "no one has been so bold as 
either to add anything to them, take 
anything from them, or make any 
change in them" (the books of the Bi- 
ble). Philo Judaeus asserts that "the 
Jews have never altered one word of 
what was written by Moses," and in the 
Talmud a scribe is exhorted as follows: 
"My son, take care how thou doest thy 
work (for thy work is a Divine one),, 
lest thou drop or add a letter." 

209 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

In summing up, have we an uncor- 
rupted text? Let me quote another sen- 
tence from Dr. James M. Gray: "Pro- 
fessor G. T. Wright, in Biblical Criti- 
cism, says, in nine hundred and ninety- 
nine cases out of every thousand of care- 
ful examination, we have the very 
words of the New Testament books, 
and in a similar examination of the Old 
Testament manuscripts and versions, 
we are assured that the Bible is identical 
with that of Christ and the Apostles. 
Their character is not affected by the or- 
iginal scriptures, any more than the 
question of spelling, of grammar, or of 
the construction and order of words; 
and yet without affecting the sense of 
reading." 

The Genealogy of Our Bible. 

In the last two divisions of this chap- 
ter, we have traced the historical rec- 
ords of the Bible to its romantic end. 
Now, in this division, I want to present 
the "Genealogy of Our Bible," to trace 

210 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

the line of ancestry, from the originals 
down to our present day versions. Now, 
let it be at once understood, that it is 
not my intention in this division to re- 
fer to all the several versions or transla- 
tions that have been made for the vari- 
ous nations and peoples of Christen- 
dom, but to form a direct line of descent 
in the translations of our Bible, and 
then afterwards, to speak of the branch 
lines of translations. 

To begin with, the "Septuagint,'' 
which has already been partially de- 
scribed, this version was the first trans- 
lation made from the original Hebrew, 
being a Greek translation. Alexandria, 
the place where the translation was 
made, became, after the dispersion, a 
center of Jewish population, and event- 
ually of religion, but, as time went on, 
the Jews, under Greek influences, lost 
command of the Hebrew, and therefore 
required a translation of their sacred 
books into Greek. We studied the na- 
ture of its preparation in the last divis- 

211 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

ion, SO will omit it here. Sufficient to 
know that the Septuagint was the first, 
at least in importance, and the oldest 
complete version in any language. It 
was begun in 285 B. C. and finished 
about 130 B. C. 

David Gregg, writing of the Septua- 
gint, says: "Its greatness is constitu- 
tional and inherent. It was the power 
of God among the Jews of the dispers- 
ion, because it was of God. Such was its 
effect upon the Greek speaking He- 
brews that it fitted them to prepare the 
nations in which their lots were cast for 
the coming of the Christ, and the com- 
ing of the missionaries of the Cross of 
Christ. Because of it there were wise 
men in the East ready to start with 
their gifts to the cradle of Bethlehem 
the moment Jesus was born, and be- 
cause of it, there were doors open into 
every nation for the incoming of the 
Gospel. It made the foreign Jews mis- 
sionaries of the Old Testament, and 
those old Testament missionaries pre- 

212 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

pared mankind for the New Testament 
missionaries who came after. In other 
words the Old Testament in Greek, 
prepared the world for the New 
Testament in Greek. If there had 
never been a Greek Old Testament, 
there would never have been a Greek 
New Testament. The Greek Old Testa- 
ment was the forerunner of the Greek 
New Testament." 

The second in our line of ancestry, is 
the "Vetus Latina/' or "Old Latin Ver- 
sion/' which also has already been re- 
ferred to. This version, that is the Old 
Testament, was made from the Septua- 
gint, in North Africa, in the second cen- 
tury, but when it was later introduced 
into Italy, where Greek was understood 
and a higher culture common, its pro- 
vincial rudeness eave offense, and so a 
revision was demanded. Thus arose 
the 'Ttala," or the Italian version of the 
Old Testament, and which was current 
during the middle of the fourth cen- 
tury. Under our last division, we stu- 

213 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

died the New Testament of the Old 
Latin, which was one of the very earli- 
est translations of the New Testament, 
it being current about the middle of the 
second century, 150 A. D., only fifty 
years from the death of the last of the 
apostles, the Apostle John. 

Then the next in our line of geneal- 
ogy is ''The Vulgate," St. Jerome's 
Version, which was made by him at 
Bethlehem, between 383 and 404 A. D. 
The ground work of Jerome's New Tes- 
tament was the current Latin versions. 
Toward the close of the fourth century 
numerous errors seemed to have crept 
into the Latin version, the Old Latin 
and the Itala, that the Latin speaking 
churches were in danger of losing the 
pure text of the Apostolic days. There 
was urgent need of a thorough revision 
and just at this crisis God raised up a 
man for the work; "Sophronius Euse- 
bius Hieronymus, commonly called Jer- 
ome," the most learned scholar, not on- 
ly of his day, but of many centuries, am- 

214 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

ply prepared linguistically through his 
acquaintance with Latin, Greek and 
Hebrew, and morally and spiritually, by 
his earnestness and piety, was request- 
ed in 383 A. D. by Damascus the Bishop 
of Rome, to do this most imperative 
work. Nothing more was contemplat- 
ed at first, than a revision of the New 
Testament, by means of the Greek orig- 
inal. The Gospels were first taken up, 
all interpolations removed, and gross 
errors corrected. We do not know 
whether he went through the whole of 
the Testament in this way, but he prob- 
ably did. Bishop Damascus then asked 
him to revise the Psalms, which he did, 
making a second revision. The first he 
made by the use of the common text of 
the Septuagint (this is the Roman Psal- 
ter, being introduced by Damascus into 
ecclesiastical use in Rome). The second 
revision he made by the use of the Hex- 
apler text; a revision of the Septuagint 
made by Origen. This is the Gallican 
Psalter, being introduced primarily in- 

215 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

to Gaul, by Gregory of Tours, then into 
Germany, England and Spain, and 
eventually was made by Pius V. in 1556, 
the successor of the Roman. After this, 
Jerome designed and carried out a re- 
vision of the entire Old Testament, ac- 
cording to the Hexapler text, but the 
more he compared the Greek texts with 
the Hebrew original, for Jewish friends 
secretely supplied him with manu- 
scripts from a synagogue, the more de- 
sirable did a new version from the He- 
brew appear. He knew full well how 
prejudice and fanaticism would put ob- 
stacles in the way, but, solicited by 
friends without any ecclesiastical sanc- 
tion, he made a beginning in 392 and 
completed his translation in 404 A. D. 
Although Jerome's version was used by 
some as soon as it was finished, it 
spread very gradually, was indeed, "re- 
ceived with a loud outcry of reproach," 
and it took centuries for it to become the 
translation of the Occident. No ecclesi- 
astic as svich, no church court, befriend- 

216 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

ed it; it won its way upon its merits, 
and in the ninth century its victory was 
complete, for the Council of Trent final- 
ly decreed that the Old Vulgate should 
be considered correct, and to this day 
with all the progress in textual re- 
search, their church has refused to ad- 
vance any further. This Latin version is 
remarkable also, as being the first book 
ever printed. Thus we see in our gen- 
ealogy, that Jerome's Vulgate was a re- 
vision of the Latin New Testament, 
with a translation of the Old Testament 
from the original Hebrew. (Shaff-Her- 
zog Ency.) 

Now we pass over a period of a thous- 
and years, during which time the Vul- 
gate was in constant use among the 
churches. In the line of descent, al- 
though "Wycliffe's Version" of 382 was 
a translation of the entire Bible, from 
the Latin Vulgate, into the English 
tongue, it does not form the ground 
work of our present Bible, hence is not 
considered in our genealogy, and so we 

217 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

pass on to 1526, the time when Tyndale 
made his version. Tyndale's was the 
first printed edition of the New Testa- 
ment into English, and was translated 
from the Greek, with the help of the 
Vulgate, and Luther's German Version, 
Luther's being made chiefly from the 
Latin Version, the Vulgate was largely 
employed. The New Testament was 
the work to which he chiefly devoted 
himself, bringing out edition after edi- 
tion, as he saw anything to be improved. 
Of the Old Testament he translated on- 
ly the Pentateuch, the historical books, 
and part of the Prophets. Tyndale's 
qualifications for his work and the ac- 
ceptance of his version by the English 
people are shown by Canon Westcott, 
who quotes an interesting account of 
Tyndale's work at Worms, from the 
diary of a German scholar who was a 
casual visitor there in 1526. After men- 
tioning other subjects of conversation 
at the dinner table, the writer goes on 
to say: "One told us that 6,000 copies of 

218 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

the English New Testament had been 
printed at Worms, that it was translat- 
ed by an Englishman who lived there 
with two of his countrymen, who was 
so complete a master of seven langu- 
ages — Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Italian, 
Spanish, English, French — that you 
would fancy that whichever he spoke in 
it was his native tongue. He toid us also 
that the English, in spite of the active 
opposition of the king, were so eager for 
the gospel, that they would buy the New 
Testament even if they had to give loo,- 
ooo pieces of money for it." (J. Patter- 
son Smyth). 

William Tyndale was born in 1483, 
just one hundred years after the death 
of Wycliffe. He was educated at Ox- 
ford, England, but later in life moved to 
Cambridge, where he became the friend 
of Erasmus, who was the foremost 
Greek scholar of his day, and who had 
just finished his Greek New Testament, 
which won the admiration of Tyndale. 
Tyndale at first thought he would study 

219 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Erasmus' Greek Testament for the pur- 
pose of scholarship, but the more he 
studied it the more he was seized by the 
love of God, and a desire that all should 
know the truths of the Bible. Arguing 
with a priest on one occasion, his op- 
ponent said: "We had better be without 
God's laws than the Pope's." This made 
Tyndale mad and in reply he said: 'T 
defy the pope and all his laws, and if 
God will but spare me, I will one day 
make the boy that drives the plow in 
England to know more of Scripture 
than the Pope does." He kept his word, 
for he at once gave himself to the tre- 
mendous task of giving to the people of 
England the Bible in their own tongue. 
Tyndale soon found out that his work 
was not to be all smooth sailing. Others 
had been led forth to death for reading 
the Bible, and it was not possible that he 
should be encouraged in his work of 
translation. However, he was not one of 
those who began a good thing and then 
gave it up because of persecution, and 

220 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

when after a year's work, in the home of 
a London merchant, he found he could 
not stay in England, he cheerfully took 
to himself the life of an exile. In 1524 
he left England, his native land never to 
see it again, and at Cologne, after two 
years of being deprived of almost the 
very necessities of life, he had his trans- 
lation ready for the printer's press. 

But, although in the printer's hands, 
and with the hope of giving an open 
Bible to the people of England almost 
realized, his hope is for the time being 
lost from sight. A friend comes rush- 
ing to his home one day with a message, 
telling him of how a priest by the name 
of Cochlaeus, had made the printers 
drunk with wine, and had thus obtained 
from them the secret of the manuscript. 
Immediatel}^ half crazed, Tyndale 
rushed to the office of the printers and 
seizing all the sheets he could get his 
hands upon, fled from Cologne to 
Worms. At Worms his task was suc- 
cessful, for there Tyndale produced the 

221 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

first complete printed New Testament 
in the English language. 

The next difficulty that confronted 
him was hew to get his Bibles Into Eng- 
land, which was finally brought about 
by being smuggled in barrels, sacks of 
flour, and in bales of cloth, and not- 
withstanding that the ports of England 
were carefully guarded to prevent their 
entrance there, they were scattered all 
through the country. Then a peculiar 
situation prevailed in England for a 
time. The Bibles were seized and 
burned at St. Paul's Cross, but the more 
they burned them the more they seemed 
to increase. This had little effect upon 
Tyndale, for he said: "They did nothing 
more than I looked for, and they may 
burn me also if it be the will of the 
Lord." Seeing that he could not thus 
destroy them, the Bishop of London 
conceived the idea of buying up all the 
books, and then destroy them. The idea 
of the bishop's was told to Tyndale by a 
young fellow by the name of Paking- 

222 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

ton, to whom Tyndale replied: "I am 
glad, for these two benefits shall come 
to me : I shall get money to bring me out 
of debt, and the whole world will cry 
out against the burning of God's Word, 
and the money that shall be left over 
will enable me to correct my New Tes- 
tament, and newly print the same once 
again, and I trust the next one will be 
much better than was the first/' Thus 
Tyndale in the midst of persecutions 
toiled and labored to give to England 
an open Bible, and after many months, 
even years, of wearisome toil, the exile 
saw his efforts crowned with success. 
Finally one day he was enticed away 
from home, and seized by his enemies, 
who hurriedly cast him into a dungeon 
in the Castle of Vilvorden. And then, 
after much cruelty, being exposed to the 
cold, and other cruel treatments, Tvn- 
dale was strangled at the stake, on the 
sixth of October 1536, his body after- 
wards being burned to ashes. While he 
was thus dying, he prayed : "Lord, open 

223 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

the king of England's eyes." Thus, 
through the heroic sacrifice and service 
of the martyr Tyndale, God hath pre- 
served unto us His Word, and thus, in 
our genealogy, we see that Jerome's 
Vulgate formed the principal back- 
ground from which Tyndale's Version 
was made. 

Still following our line of Biblical an- 
cestry, we come to the year 1535, when 
Miles Coverdale, with a staff of five 
translators, who assisted Tyndale in his 
work, made the first complete Bible, 
which was printed in the English 
tongue (Tyndale's was only the new 
Testament), following closely the lines 
of Tyndale. 

Two years later in 1537, appeared 
Matthew's Bible, which was purely and 
simply Tyndale's translation, except the 
latter half of the Old Testament which 
w^as taken from Coverdale's Bible. 

During the next two years both these 
two versions were in common use 
among the churches of England, until 

224 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

they gave way to the Great Bible. Miles 
Coverdale was selected to take charge 
of this w^ork and so he proceeded to 
Paris with the king's printer, that the 
book might be brought out in the very 
best possible style. However, the In- 
quisitor General got to know of the pro- 
ject, the result being a repetition of Tyn- 
dale's experience at Cologne, only that 
Coverdale fared better than Tyndale, 
for though his Bibles were all seized, he 
succeeded in carrying off the printing 
press, the type, and even the printers 
themselves, to complete the work in 
England, which was published in April, 
1539, and authorized to be used in every 
church in the kingdom. The Great 
Bible was but a revision of Matthew's 
and Coverdale's of 1536, and as they 
were almost entirelv Tvndale's, the 
Great Bible was reallv a little more than 
a revised edition of Tyndale's. 

During the next thirty years two 
other important translations were 
made, which, with the Great Bible of 

225 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

1539, formed the ground work of our 
present day Authorized Version and all 
of which were chiefly based on Tvndars 
Version; these two, were the Genevan 
and the Bishops Bible. The Genevan 
Bible was made by English exiles be- 
tween 1557 and 1560, who took up their 
residence at Geneva, whither they had 
fled to escape the persecutions of bloody 
Mary. This version contained margin- 
al note and was the first that laid aside 
the old black letter for the present Ro- 
man type and also the first to recognize 
the divisions into verses, the first to 
omit the Apocrypha and was the Bible 
brought to America by the Pilgrim Fa- 
thers. Among those who translated the 
Genevan Bible was William Whitting- 
ham, who acted as editor, Miles Cover- 
dale, John Knox and John Calvin. 

The Bishop's Bible was undertaken 
by Archbishop Parker of Canterbury, 
who employed the assistance of fifteen 
theologians, eight of whom were 
bishops. This verison was but a 

226 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

revision of the Great Bible, which 
in itself was a revision of Tyndales. 
Thus we see between the years of 1535 
and 1568, there were five important re- 
visions, all of which were based upon 
the work of Tyndale. 

Now, we come to the birth of our own 
^'Authorized Version," the story of which 
is best told by Messrs. Thomas Nelson 
& Sons, the publishers of the Americ- 
an Standard Edition of the Bible and 
from whom I procured the greater part 
of what I shall say concerning both the 
Authorized and the Revised Versions. 

England at the beginning of the 
seventeenth century had three different 
versions: "The Genevan,'' The "Bishops 
Bible" and the "Great Bible"— the first 
largely read, the second upheld chiefly 
by ecclesiastical support and the last 
used in many country churches. At 
this particular period the condition of 
all classes of society in Great Britain 
was a most peculiar one. King James 
VI. of Scotland had become King James 

227 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

I. of England by choice of Parliament 
and the two countries were united un- 
der one sovereign, yet each retained its 
own church and its own laws. Political- 
ly and socially the country was like a 
troubled sea after a storm; it had not 
yet recovered from its disturbing influ- 
ence of the preceeding reign. Educa- 
tionally it was a state of transition. 
Shakespeare was at the zenith of his 
power and the people still clung to the 
antique form and phrases of the lan- 
guage of his day, though education was 
making progress among a certain class. 
But the religious differences of his sub- 
jects gave the monarch more concern 
than other matters at the outset. He 
found himself reigning over three coun- 
tries each professing a different religion 
Scotland was Presbyterian or Puritan, 
Ireland Catholic and England Anglic- 
an or Episcopal. The Puritans, though 
secure themselves, felt that all the bene- 
fits of the Reformation had not been 
realized, and they complained that the 

228 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

forms and ceremonies of the church of 
England were not according to the 
Scriptures. On the other hand the An- 
glicans denounced the Puritans as 
''Vipers" to James. The king, a man of 
fair abilities and cherishing to the ful- 
lest extent a belief in "the divine right 
of kings," resolved to exercise his au- 
thority as God's anointed. He foresaw 
a schism within the Church of England, 
unless the pending question of religious 
.observance and a uniform service were 
speedily adjusted and when he was pre- 
sented with a petition, signed by one 
thousand Puritan ministers, asking var- 
ious ceremonial reforms, he summoned 
a conference at Hampton Court, near 
London to settle once for all the relig- 
ious policy of the government. At that 
conference it soon became clear that the 
petition would not be granted, James 
had not yet forgotten how a Scottish 
minister had gripped his royal sleeve at 
a public meeting in Edinburgh and had 
addressed him as "God's silly vassal" an 

229 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

example of disrespect, which kings 
then as now were quick to resent. So 
the monarch chose to regard the Puri- 
tans plea for equality in the Church as 
involving equality in the State also and 
therefore to be condemned. But James, 
though he gave a blow to democracy at 
that meeting and answered all the Puri- 
tan appeal with his stubborn maxim, 
''No bishop,no king,"didone good thing 
for which the world will ever hold him 
in grateful remembrance. He held that 
his dutiful subjects should have a uni- 
form Bible and so, setting aside all the 
three versions then in use he authorized 
a fresh translation of the entire Bible, 
which should be called after himself — 
the "King James' Version." The ground 
work of which was "The Genevan, the 
"Bishop's Bible and the "Great Bible." 
The next few years saw stirring times 
in England. The honest Puritans were 
involuntary transformed into dissenters 
and for years afterwards they were per- 
secuted and expelled from their livings 

230 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

for non-conformity. James was twice 
in peril of his life from assassins. The 
Anti-Protestants hatched the infamous 
"Gunpowder Plot" to blow up the king 
and Parliament and pave the way for 
the restoration of Romanism and the 
plan was narrowly frustrated. Ra- 
leigh's foreign policy had brought the 
countries to a verge of war with Spain, 
then a mighty naval power. Amid all 
this internal and external turmoil the 
people of the United Kingdom awoke 
one morning to the fact, in 1611, that 
the one great act of King James' reign 
was complete and accomplished and so 
well was it done that it remained for 
nearly three hundred years the Stand- 
ard Version of every English speaking 
Protestant Church and Bible reading 
community in the World. That the 
King James Version holds a high place 
in sacred literature all the world has 
acknowledged. For generations it re- 
mained the standard Bible of the Eng- 
lish speaking people in all lands, a noble 

231 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

monument to the men who labored so 
faithfully and so successfully in its pro- 
duction. Yet even this magnificent 
monument of learning the world out- 
grew in time as it had outgrown the 
earlier revision, Wycliffs, Tyndale's 
Coverdale's and the Great Bible and for 
similar reasons. 

The gradual transformation of the 
English language in the course of near- 
ly three centuries made a revision abso- 
lutely necessary, for in that lapse of 
time, the significance of many words 
had been completely altered, while 
others had become obsolete and ob- 
scure. It was Tyndale who enunciated 
the rule which from the very beginning 
of Bible revision, seems to have gov- 
erned such work. "If it be perceived that 
in any place the revision has not at- 
tained unto the very sense of the tongue 
or the very meaning of the Scriptures," 
he wrote, "or that they have not given 
the right English, they should put their 
hands to it and amend it, remember- ' 

232 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

ing that so it is their duty to do." Such 
is the reverent task of all revisers, to 
shrink from which is to impose upon the 
world an incomplete message, when it 
should be clear as the noon-day sun. 
And so upwards of forty dictionaries of 
the English language have appeared 
since King James' Bible was issued, 
each making a still further departure 
from its quaint and almost mediaeval 
diction. These, with other causes com- 
bined to render a new version of the 
Scriptures an imperative duty. It was 
a work to be done well or not to be un- 
dertaken at all and in 1856 the appoint- 
ment of a royal commission was urged 
in England. It was not until 1870, how- 
ever, that the great task of revision was 
really begun. On July 7th, 1870, a mo- 
tion was made in convocation instruct- 
ing the British Revision Committee "to 
invite the co-operation of some Americ- 
an Divines." Two committees were 
formed in this country to co-operate 
with the two English companies, as 

233 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

they were called and a plan of work was 
duly arranged. Portions of Scriptures 
that had been revised were exchanged 
between the two countries. Only in 
part does the world know the true story 
of the Anglo-American Revision. The 
New Testament was completed and is- 
sued in 1 88 1, when it was formally pre- 
sented in convocation to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury by the Bishop of Glou- 
cester and Bristol and received the offi- 
cial blessing. The Old Testament ap- 
peared in 1885 four years later. Both 
were marked by the finest available 
scholarship, but that there were evi- 
dences of undue haste at certain stages 
of the work, was made clear in the ad- 
dress of the Bishop of Gloucester, in 
which he admitted that, after the revi- 
sion had been finished, the chairman, 
reading line for line, detected in the 
New Testament inconsistencies in the 
words and expressions, "that had in 
some way eluded the vigilance of the 
Revisors." 

234 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

When the English version was pub- 
lished the English company disbanded 
but the American company continued 
their organization. They felt that all 
too brief a time had been allowed for 
the consideration of many important 
questions in the English revision and 
that it was clearly their duty to pre- 
serve their organization and to continue 
their work on the lines they had thus far 
proceeded. This decision was a most 
fortunate one for the Bible reading 
world, since it has resulted in the publi- 
cation of the American Standard Bible 
which can truthfully be designated as 
" the Last Word" in accurate transla- 
tion. The members of the American 
committee including the best Biblical 
scholars of all leading evangelical de- 
nominations in the United States and 
the most distinguished professors of our 
leading Universities and Theological 
Seminaries. This noble company of 
consecrated men undertook their great 
work with a full appreciation of its im- 

235 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

portance without compensation and 
with an unselfish desire to benefit their 
fellow men. They were divided into 
two companies, one taking the Old and 
the other the New Testament. The ex- 
penses of this herculean task extending 
over so many years, were not met by 
any appropriation; there was no subsi- 
dy whatsoever, but the money was 
raised by voluntary subscriptions by the 
friends of the work in this country. In 
the largest sense, therefore, the work 
was purely one of love; certainly it was 
not one of gain. It was done for Christ 
and for posterity. From 1872 to 1901 
the American committee were engaged 
unceasingly upon this work. These 
thirty years were years of unexampled 
fruitfulnes in scientific explorations and 
literary investigations, the results of 
which had been far richer in many re- 
spects than any during the three pre- 
ceeding centuries. In a word, they were 
years that have thrown a flood of new 
light upon the story of the Bible. Exca- 

236 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

vations in Egypt, Syria, Babylonia, Ju- 
dea and Arabia have been productive of 
the most amazing discoveries. Ancient 
sculptors, whole libraries of ancient dy- 
nasties and the stories of long buried 
cities of the past have come to light in 
rapid succession and so many discover- 
ies have been associated with the Bible 
and the events it narrates, that a new 
aspect has been given to many passages 
in the book that composed the sacred 
volume. Tablets and inscriptions long 
hidden in the earth have been restored 
to the world, the deciphering of which 
has been the task of eminent scholars. 
These have furnished in some instances 
clues to material changes and correc- 
tions in the form of Bible translations. 
It is unquestionable too, that in these 
three decades, there should have been 
more earnest study of the original 
manuscripts composing our Bible than 
at any preceding period. Within a 
comparatively recent time so great has 
been the increase of knowledge concern- 

237 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

ing ancient lands and languages that 
Germany, France, Holland, Norway, 
Sweden and Denmark, have all made re- 
visions of their Bible Versions. Great- 
er familiarity with the originals have 
given to the students a better acquain- 
tance with the spirit and character of 
the ancient languages and has conse- 
quently rendered them better able to in- 
terpret their exact meaning. New light 
has dawned upon many of the passages 
which formerly were obscure, if not 
meaningless, owing to defects in earlier 
translations. Thus the mass of new 
Biblical evidence, new manuscripts the 
changes in the language and many 
other considerations had due right with 
the American committee in the prepar- 
ation of the American Standard Ver- 
sion. Let me cite an incident by way of 
illustration, though rather crude, which 
will I believe show how words have dif- 
ferent meanings or refer to different 
things and which was one reason that 
called for the American Standard Ver- 

238 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

sion of the Bible. ''Our neighbor keeps 
a boot and shoe store down town, his 
daughter Katie told my wife one day 
that she was going to work in her fa- 
ther's store. Later, my wife who is Eng- 
lish, but only over a few years from the 
old country, said to me; "Katie is going 
to work in her father's shop" now, I be- 
ing also English, though in this country 
much longer time than my wife, under- 
stood what she meant by "shop" the 
term in England referring to a store, but 
the average American would think she 
meant a factory or workshop, a place 
where things are made." And so, besides 
all the other good qualities that it pos- 
sesses what a grand thing it is for 
American people, to have the Bible in 
American terms of language. 

Now let me cite an illustration from 
the King James' Version itself. We read 
in Mattthew 6. 34; "Take no thought 
for the morrow" while the American 
Standard Version, makes it more easy 
to be understood, "Be not therefore 

239 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

anxious for the morrow" the same 
truth, but in plainer terms. Again, the 
King James' Version uses the word 
"Master" as applied to Jesus Christ, 
forty-seven times, while the proper 
word to be used is "Teacher" as used in 
the American Version. 

These changes are not to be regarded 
as changes in the Bible itself, but rather 
as rectification of translation and a re- 
turn to the originals, whose meanings 
and spirit had not been rightly under- 
stood until now. In dealing with the an- 
cient Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, 
the American translators have retained 
all that was good, corrected the transla- 
tor's errors and made many marked im- 
provements. The American Standard 
Bible represents the best of this work in 
all ages, plus the ripest Christian schol- 
arship of our own. Relatively, it is to 
its immediate predecessor, what Tyn- 
dales, Coverdales and Crammer's Bibles 
were to their predecessors. Of the 
American Standard Version, Charles 

240 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

Gallaudet Trumbull, says, "It is not the 
Bible that is being revised, it is man's 
fallible translations from one human 
language into another, that are capable 
of constant improvement in order to 
better convey the Father's message." 
Thus we see that the Revised Versions 
of our Bible, both the English and 
American are but a revision of the Au- 
thorized or King James' Version." 

Reviewing our ''Genealogy of the Bi- 
ble" we find that our ''Revised Ver- 
sions" had their birth in the "Author- 
ized Version" which was begotten of 
the "Genevan, the Bishop's and the 
Great Bible" which were begotten of 
"T3mdale's Version" which was begot- 
ten of "Jerome's Vulgate" which was 
begotten of the Latin Versions, the 
"Old Latin and the Itala" which were 
begotten of the "Septuagint" which was 
begotten of the "Originals." Although 
somewhat thin in one or two places, 
these Versions from the direct line of 
Ancestry. 

241 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Other Romantic Translations. 

It has deemed itself advisable to refer 
to a few other translations of the Scrip- 
tures, which were either whole or in 
part and which though not in the direct 
line of genealog}^ were very important, 
and are interestingly romantic. The 
title of which is the following: 

The oldest manuscript of the Old 
Testament, is now kept at Shechem, so 
sacredly associated with Joshua and 
with Jesus and the woman at the well 
It is called the "Samaritan Pentateuch." 
It is said to have been received by Man- 
nesseh, a brother of the high priest, 
some time after the return of the Tews 
from captivity. It Wcis only brought to 
light about the seventeenth ccntur}^ and 
is jealously guarded by these fast decay- 
ing Samaritans. There are only about 
one hundred and twenty-five Samari- 
tans left, but this little group the re- 
mainder of a once proud and influential 
people, with whom Jews had no deal- 
ings have in their possession one of the 

242 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

greatest testimonies to the history of 
the Bible, which has come down to us 
through the Jews. (Service Vol. IX 
No. I.) 

The First Anglo-Saxon Translation. 
The first Anglo-Saxon translation of 
the scriptures was made by the Vener- 
able Bede, in the year 735, A. D. but 
was not a complete translation, being 
only the Gospel of John. He received 
the appellation venerable because of his 
deep piety and virtue. Bede was born 
in England in the year 673, A. D. and 
died in 745, at the age of seventy-two 
years. At the very early age of six 
years he was sent to the monastry of St. 
Peter, under the superintendency of the 
the Abbot Benedict, by whom and his 
successor Coelfrid he was educated for 
twelve years and at the early age of 
nineteen, he was ordained a deacon. In 
a short time by his diligence and appli- 
cation, he became a proficient in general 
knowledge and in classical literature. It 
is said of him that England scarcely ever 

243 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

produced a greater scholar or divine, 
and that if he had lived in the 
days of St. Augustine, St. Jerome, or 
Chrysostom, he would undoubtedly 
have equaled them, since, even in the 
midst of a superstitious age, he wrote 
so many excellent treaties. The account 
of his translation of the Gospel of John 
is most interesting and most sacred. St. 
Cuthbert, who was a pupil of the Vener- 
able Bede's tells us that in the year 735, 
A. D. there stood on the south bank ot 
the Tyne, a little to the west of the mod- 
ern town of South Shields, a monastery 
called Jarrow. It was the evening of the 
twenty-sixth of May an unusual silence 
pervaded the sacred retreat. The monks 
spoke in anxious whispers. On a low 
bed in one of the cells lay an aged priest, 
his wasted frame and sunken eyes told 
that death was near; his breath was 
slow and labored. Near him sat a young 
scribe with an open scroll and a pen in 
his hand. Looking with affectionate 
tenderness in the face of the dying man 

244 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

said, ''Now dearest Master, there re- 
mains only one chapter, but the exer- 
tion is too great for you." "It is easy, 
my son, it is easy," he repHed; ''take 
your pen, write quickly; I know not 
how soon my Maker will take me.'' 
Sentence after sentence was uttered in 
feeble accents and written by the scribe. 
Again there was a long pause; nature 
seemed exhausted. Again the boy 
spoke" Dear Master, only one sentence 
is wanting." It too, was pronounced 
slowly and painfully. "It is finished," 
said the-scribe; "It is finished," repeated 
the dying saint and then added, "Lift 
up my head; place me in the spot where 
I have been accustomed to pray." With 
tender care he was placed in the position 
he desired. Then clasping his hands, 
and lifting his eyes heavenward, he ex- 
claimed, "Glory be to the Father and to 
the Son and to the Holy Ghost;" and 
with the last word his spirit passed 
away. Thus died the Venerable Bede; 
and thus was completed the first Anglo- 

245 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Saxon translation of the Gospel of St. 
John. (The Biblical Museum.) 

Wycliffe's Version : — John Wycliff e 
was born in Yorkshire about 1320 He 
studied at Baliol College, Oxford and 
was for some time master of that col- 
lege. He became later rector of Lutter- 
worth in Leicestershire and was the 
foremost leader of the reform party. He 
died in 1384. About 1380, he undertook 
with the assistance of some of his fol- 
lowers, especially Nicholas Hereford, 
the translation of the entire Bible into 
English from the Latin Vulgate. It 
was the first complete English Bible 
and was translated after his death by 
one of his adherents. The work was re- 
garded with grave suspicion and a bill 
was introduced into the House of Lords 
for suppressing it, but through the in- 
fluence of John of Gaunt, this was re- 
jected. Later, however, the Convoca- 
tion of the Province of Canterbury at 
Oxford resolved that no one should 
translate any text of Scripture into 

246 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

English, as a book or tract and that no 
book of the kind should be read publicly 
or privately until approved by ecclesias- 
tical authority, on pain of the greater 
excommunication. Wycliffe received a 
citation from the Pope to appear at 
Rome, but he ansv^ered, "that Christ 
had taught him to obey God rather than 
man.'' He died of a pals}^ at the rectory 
at Lutterworth in 1384. The council of 
Constance denounced him a heretic and 
decreed that his remains should no long- 
er desecrate consecrated ground. His 
bones were exhumed and burned in 
1428, therefore, and the ashes thrown 
into the neighboring brook. Fuller, the 
Church Historian says: "Thus this 
brook conveyed his ashes into Avon, 
Avon in Severn, Severn into the narrow 
seas, they into the main ocean and thus 
the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of 
his doctrine, which is now dispersed the 
world over." 

247 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

"The Poor Man's Bible." 

Before the invention of printing, no 
books existed except such as were writ- 
ten. These were so scarce and high 
priced that hardly any person except the 
rich could afford to purchase them, con- 
sequentl}^ the greater part of the people 
of every country remained in deepest 
ignorance. This at length began to pass 
away and among the earliest attempts 
to impart religious instruction was the 
"Biblia Pauperaum'' or the "Poor 
Man's Bible." It is supposed to have 
been printed about the year 1420. It 
consists of forty pictures engraved on 
wood (printing by type was not invent- 
ed) ; each picture is divided into three 
parts, containing subjects taken from 
the Bible, very rudely drawn and imper- 
fectly executed, with a text or a few 
words explaining the subject of the pic- 
ture. Those who were unable to pos- 
sess larger works might thus attain at 
a small expense, a degree of knowledge 

248 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

of some of the events recorded in the 
scriptures. A few copies are still to be 
found and some idea of the work may be 
acquired from a description of the for- 
tieth or last picture. In the middle di- 
vision is represented the Redeemer be- 
stowing the crown of life on one of the 
daughters of Zion, crowned by the 
spouse as described in the Song of Sol- 
omon and on the right is represented 
the angel speaking to St. John. At the 
upper part of the picture are busts of 
David and Isaiah and two texts of 
Scripture — one is Song of Sol., 5. 7, 8; 
the other Rev. 21, and the latter part of 
the ninth verse. There are also some 
other short inscriptions. The copies of 
this 'Toor Man's Bible" which remain 
are generally incomplete and have been 
much used. Imperfect as this method 
of teaching the truths contained in the 
Bible must have been, yet from several 
circumstances it appears to have been 
received with eagerness and may re- 
mind us that when our Lord was upon 

249 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

earth "the common people heard him 
gladly." (James Comper Gray.) 

"The Douay, or Roman Catholic Bible. 

The Bible used by the Catholic Laity, 
is called "The Douay Bible'' and the 
"Rhemish Testament.'' In 1568 William 
Allen founded a college or seminaire at 
Douay in France, for the education of 
Roman Catholic priests destined for the 
English mission. Though supported 
only by private subscriptions it flour- 
ished and in a short time had one hund- 
red and fifty scholars and ten professors 
and thus it made the town, the head- 
quarters of the Roman Catholic Eng- 
lishmen living on the Continent. 
Among the men who came from Douay 
are Campian and his colleagues, also 
Sherwin and Bryant. In 1578 after the 
great Huguenot riot, the college was 
compelled to move from Douay to 
Rheims, where in 1582 was issued the 
Rhemish New Testament, translated 
from the Latin Vulgate. However, in 

250 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

1593 the college returned to Douay, 
where in 1609-10 the Old Testament 
was translated also from the Latin Vul- 
gate. These two are the only versions 
used by the Roman Catholic Laity, and 
are remarkable for their Latinisms. A 
table of references is appended in which 
the texts are classified that are thought 
to support Romanist doctrines it also 
contains annotations and controversial 
notes, which bear in the same direction. 
(Shafif-Herzog, Ency,) 

"Eliot's Indian Bible/' 

John Eliot, "the apostle of the In- 
dians" was born in England in 1604 3.nd 
received his education at Cambridge. In 
163 1 he removed to America and settled 
at Roxbury, Massachusetts, as minister 
where he remained until his death, in 
1690. He became interested in the con- 
version of the Indians of New England, 
whom he believed to be the decendents 
of the lost tribes of Israel and deter- 
mined to give them the Scriptures in 

251 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

their tribal tongue which was the Nat- 
ick dialect. He completed the transla- 
tion of the New Testament in 1661 and 
that of the entire Bible 1663. It was 
printed in Cambridge, Mass. by Samuel 
Green and Marmaduke Johnson, "or- 
dered to be printed by the Commission- 
ers of the United Colonies of New Eng- 
land, at the charge and with the con- 
sent of the Corporation on New Eng- 
land for the propagation of the Gospel 
among the Indians of New England." 
Eliot's Indian Bible was the first ever 
printed in America and the entire trans- 
lation is stated to have been written with 
one pen. They are very valuable and 
range in price according to edition from 
two hundred and fifty dollars to two 
thousand five hundred dollars each. The 
Natick dialect in which the translation 
of the Bible was made is now extinct. 

"The Burmese Bible." 

One of the most romantic versions of 
the Bible is the "Burmese Bible." The 

252 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

story of its translation is as romantic as 
the discovery of the Sinaitic Manu- 
script by Tishendorf and yet it was not 
translated until the ninteenth century. 
The Burmese Bible was translated by an 
American Baptist Missionary by the 
name of Adoniram Judson at Rangoon 
in 1840. The human credit of introduc- 
ing Christianity into Burma belongs to 
Judson and his noble wife who began 
their labors at Rangoon in 1813. Their 
devotedness to their missionary labors 
was clearlv seen even before their mar- 
riage. 

In his letter to her father asking his 
consent to the marriage, Mr. Judson 
said: "I have now to ask whether you 
can consent to her departure to a 
heathen land; whether you can consent 
to her exposure to the dangers of the 
ocean; to every kind of want and dis- 
tress; to degradation, insult, persecu- 
tion and perhaps a violent death? Can 
you consent to all this for the sake of 

253 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

Him, who left his heavenly home and 
died for her and you?" 

After studying the language for sev- 
eral years, Mr. Judson began to preach 
and to publish tracts in the Burman 
language. But just as they were get- 
ting under way in their missionary la- 
bors, the Burmese war broke out. The 
war was a bloody one to .the Burmese 
Mr. Judson was seized and imprisoned 
with Dr. Price and others. During his 
imprisonment of more than a year and 
a half, nine months in three pairs of fet- 
ters, two months in five pairs, amidst 
indescribable sufferings, Mrs. Judson 
repaired every day two miles to the pris- 
on, prepared food for her husband and 
administered to the wants of the prison- 
ers, made constant application for their 
lives and their deliverance. But for her 
they must have perished. Mrs. Judson 
was engaged in a great work and she 
went fearlessly on to death. She shrank 
from no danger, nor turned back from 
any peril. She saw martyrdom before 

254 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

her but it was surrounded by beautific 
visions. She saw the seed of the Gospel 
planted in a heathen land and she be- 
lieved that if it was long in springing 
up it would in time flourish and break 
asunder the chains of superstition and 
sin. Every day confirms the wisdom of 
her anticipations. No female mission- 
ary ever passed through such scenes of 
sufferings and made such efforts of 
benevolence in sickness and amidst per- 
ils and difficulties of every kind. When 
at a future time the Gospel shall fully 
triumph over the superstition of the 
East her name will be honored through- 
out Burma as it is already honored 
throughout the Christian and civilized 
world. 

Concerning the translation of the 
"Burmese Bible," Judson had been 
working for some time on it and just as 
he finished it, was thrown into prison. 
His wife took the precious manuscript, 
and buried it in the ground. To leave it 
there would mean decay; to let the au- 

255 



CONFIRMING THE FAITH. 

thorities get hold of it would mean de- 
struction. So Mrs. Judson rolled it in 
cotton and brought it to her husband 
for a pillow in prison. After seven 
months, even this hard pillow was taken 
away, but his wife finally redeemed it 
with a better one. Sometime after, Jud- 
son was hurried from the prison and had 

to leave everything behind him and his 
old pillow was thrown out as so much 
trash. Within a few hours it was 
picked up by a native Christian as a rel- 
ic of the prisoner and long afterwards 
it was found uninjured. 

Thus we have concluded our mes- 
sage. May He who is the Author and 
Preserver of the Bible give to each read- 
er of these pages a faith that will not 

shrink or depart from the teachings of 
the "Old Book'' and may He move every 

heart to a deeper and a more reverent 
study of His Word; God's only revela- 
tion of man's redemption. 

256 



ITS HISTORICAL ROMANCE AND GENEALOGY. 

Though the cover is worn, 

And the pages are torn, 
And though places bear traces of tears; 

Yet more precious than gold 

Is the Book worn and old, 
That can shatter and scatter my fears. 

This old Book is my guide, 

Tis a friend by my side. 
It will lighten and brighten my way; 

And each promise I find 

Smooths and gladdens my mind 
As I read it and heed it today. 

To this Book I will cling. 

Of its worth I will sing, 
Though great losses and crosses be 

mine; 

For I cannot despair 

Though surrounded by care. 
While possessing this blessing Divine. 

— Selected. 

THE END. 

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